wow!

from this.....



to this...


Happy birthday beautiful girl!!

bye bye summer

well, summer seems to be over at our house.

haley will be in grade 2 as of next week. i have no idea when all that growing happened, but it did, and i cannot believe that we are only two years away from middle school after this year.

matthew and sarah will be spending alot more time together soon, since matthew is moving up to the preschool room with sarah next week. my little baby will be playing with the bigger kids.

i have finally started my nursing program. monday was my first day and it being thursday, i am already busy busy with work. (i think i'll top out the 4 hour mark tonight) it is scary, fun, and everything in between, and i just keep thinking about how great it will be for our family when i am done.

the time will fly by, just as this summer did, and matthew will be starting kindergarten the year i complete my degree. crazy huh?

there is ballet, and brownies, swimming, school functions, and lots more coming in the next couple weeks. all of it means that long and lazy days are over and the real work is about to begin.

family fun!

the girls had a awesome weekend at auntie claudette's house for the second annual fillion campout.
i spent the better part of saturday there and left them to sleepover with their cousins and my dad.

here are a few photos of the event. there are lots more to show, but i am waiting to get the pictures since i wasn't the one who took any......

smile of the day brought to you by

the best little monsters in the whole world. and they are all mine

a big party for a big girl

sarah had a fun fun birthday bowling party this afternoon. we celebrated with lots of friends from daycare, auntie jackie and uncle fred, and auntie aleshea, kari and madisson!! (thank you guys so much for driving in to celebrate with sarah today:) )

after bowling there was pizza, cake, presents and loud noisemakers. she had a great time, and cannot wait until haley has her party in a short 3 weeks.
here are some pictures from the party, i can't post them all, but i can show some.

a great night.

we got some great tickets to the goldeyes game tonight. the first game we have ever taken all teh kids to, and actually sat in the lower seats. we were right behind the visitors dugout and the seats were perfect. the kids were able to meet "goldie", watch "elvis" up close, and matty was even given two baseballs at different times by the visting team's players. all in all the kids had tons of fun. and this is something we will definately ahve to do again before summer's end!

she is 4!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG GIRL!!

and finally....

a great picture for a future wedding day.

summer time fun

just a few photos showing the kids enjoying a little summer fun. says like this are the best. the house stays clean, we eat lots of things we shouldn't, like smores and freezies, and everyone gets along, most of the time.

sisters rock

without them, this picture would not be possible.

huh......

isn't it funny how the grass is always greener on the other side?

when i was home all day with the kids, i would pray for time alone. time to read, nap, get out and do what i wanted, and eat what i wanted.
fast forward 7 years, and my wish has come true, and yet here i sit, on a friday morning, all alone, wishing i had the kids here to keep me busy......
funny how life can go sometimes....


as for a few updates:
haley spent 2 nights away at her favorite cousin kari's house. after hearing about all the fun she had, i am surprised she even wanted to come home. picking her up yesterday brough back lots of memories of my own childhood, since i spent alot of time in the summer at kari's grandma's house. and i also had so much fun, i was surprised i wanted to ever go home.

sarah is still doing great at "school" and does everything she can to make sure we know she is there. and although they fight all the time, sarah wanted haley to come home so bad because she missed her big sister. awwwwwwwww!

matty is adjusting to daycare like a champ. he is making friends all over the place, taking it all in, and making me so proud to me his mommy.

as the summer starts ticking away, i am hoping to learn to enjoy my free time (since we all know i will soon have none) and spending my time with the kids when i can.

i hope you all enjoy your summer as much as i plan to.

its getting real

well, it's getting official. i will be starting school in 2 months and everything is starting to get very real and very close for me.

today the kids all got their daycare placements for the fall, in fact, they will have to start in the summer to hold their spots for the fall. we were planning on a nanny, but that plan feel through. fortunately, sarah already attends a wonderful preschool/daycare program and a spot for matthew opened up, and they offered it to me right away. there is also a spot for haley in the before and after school program, and haley is thrilled about spending more time with her friends from school then she already does. in fact, she'll get to see lots of them over the course of the summer.
although i am happy that they will all be well cared for in the fall, i am a little sad that they will all be starting sooner than i planned for.
also, i had my orientation for school to go over class info and other things. that made everything more real too.
the countdown is on,and ready or not here it comes!

i think the kids will adjust better to the new situation than mommy will, it seems.

what weekends are all about...

i only wish we could have stayed like that all day!

its official!

my baby is potty trained! completely trained. i am mean for my sanity we are still wearing pull ups at night(come on now, its a new mattress...)but there are no pull ups during the day.

he is surprising me everyday. people told me "don't get your hopes up, he's a boy" "he'll take longer to train" and here we are. 26 months and done! the youngest of all the kids and a boy to boot.

he's small in size but big in brains i guess.

thank heaven for little girls

just like the song........the girls had the end of the year big gala dance recital yesterday, and they were fantastic!!
there was a wonderful mix of classic ballet, hip hop and jazz numbers and the girls were both very cute in their numbers.
they work hard for 10 months before this recital and the results are just heartwarming to watch.
here are some pre show photos, and when the vidoe upload starts workingout for me, i'll post their dances.hopefully in the next few hours.

"I'm a big boy now!"

we have been trying to potty train matty for about a week now and with little success might i add. he is stubborn and will hold it in for hours at a time if it means he won't have to go on the potty.
he simply waits us out until nap time and bedtime and lets loose then........that is until today.

he has finally peed on the potty!!!! not once, but twice in an hour period. WHOO HOO!!

there were high fives, happy dancing, and candy to get, one would have thought we won the superbowl in this house.

hopefully this was a new beginning for all of us, he seems more into it when he knows mommy and daddy will give him candy and make sure he is praised over and over and over again.
i don't mind any of it, as long as it means that i won't have to buy another bag of pullups when this one runs out.

rain rain go away, come again another day.....

beauty

my little boy, beautiful becuase he is so full of love and affection.


sarah, beautiful because she has a sense of humor that could make anyone laugh, and a laugh that is truly a masterpiece.


and haley, beautiful for, well you can see, but also because her heart is in the right place, she is full of curiousity and compassion.

and together they make my life beautiful, no matter what it throws at me!

power

you may be wondering about the title of this post, but read and watch on and you will soon see the meaning......

so we went to feed the geese this week, and matty LOVED it! when we first got there, tons of geese walked right up to us. its like they could smell the bread from inside the bag or something. matty was a little spooked at first saying "bite me? bite me?" well, its didn't take long for him to be comfy with them. as you can see, he had no problems with them at all once he got up on the bench



i guess since the poor kid has no power in the house with the girls, he figured he could show his strenth by yelling at the geese.

missed a few

here are a few more that i couldn't put up in the other post.....