My family! I love them!

My 3 year old...is a stinker!

D's cake all finished up!

Looking good right! I decided to jump in the shower quick before
Dad got home.....

And this is the picture Dad took while I was in the shower.
D was very proud of himself.

See Dad!

Look closely at the cake you can kind of see D's handy work.

The left of the cake has a bunch of frosting missing and
the right of the cake(the "dirt") is all gone!  He ate it all!!
He was so proud to tell me what he did.  I honestly could not
be mad at him!  It was too cute!

Happy Birthday D!!

3 years old!  WOW, where does the time go?!  It seems like yesterday that we got a very big surprise when we found out we were pregnant with you!  You are an amazing surprise!

You are an incredibly stubborn little boy!  No one(and I mean NO ONE) will change your mind, unless you decide it is OK!

You are a goofy little boy.  Even when you are in trouble you are trying to get someone to smile.  You don't like seriousness.

You will right a wrong!  This is not always a good thing.  If one of your siblings does you wrong(usually K, since you guys fight hard and love just as hard) you will work until you take care of it! 

I love that no one can sway you, PLEASE stay that way! Believe in what you do and don't crumble to peer pressure!

Please, now that you are a big boy, start eating something other than Brats and  candy!!!!  You used to love eating green beans, WHAT HAPPENED!?

"I love your tisses!" is one of my favorite things that you say!  You know how to melt my heart!

We are celebrating your day today!  I can't wait to watch you open your presents! The joy on your face is thanks enough!

God blessed us with you D! We love you SO much!

My August meeting

I had my bi monthly celebrate and connect meeting last Monday.  It was my biggest to date, and only my 2nd one doing all by myself!  We had 31 ladies attend, how funny is that!

The cake was made by an amazingly talented woman who I grew up with.  Let me tell you, it tastes just a good as it looks!  My kids are always excited for these meetings to see if I bring home extra cake for them!

Life in our crazy house!

There is never a dull moment in our house!  D felt that our house was a little crazy the other day and insisted on wearing his big brothers bike helmet around!  Apparently we have a very dangerous/crazy house in his eyes!
D's birthday is coming up next week and I have been realizing how much he is growing up.  He is not my little baby anymore!  He is going to be 3 and he is our last "Baby"!  I am having minor Mommy issues with every new step he is taking towards being a Big Kid!
WHERE DID MY BABY GO!?!?

Oh what will I do with him?!

I know, I know everyone tells me the baby of the family will get away with a lot more than any of the other children.  However D seems to push whomever he wants to, just to see how far he goes.  He does stuff the other children never ever did! 

The picture is him getting caught chocolate handed stealing the pan of freshly made brownies!  I can't even tell you how much he ate because they were not cut up, he was just picking them out!

He is infamous for coloring himself with markers, or the floor, or the window, or the table....well do you get the idea.  He is pretty much not allowed to use markers!

He has snuck outside countless times.  He has a snarky little grin that makes you laugh.  Just a little stinker!

This being said, no matter how much of a trouble maker he is, we love him!  I have just had to learn how to redo some parenting techniques that are specific to D!

Trains

Look in the reflection of the mirror.  As we were leaving Kentucky we ended up having to wait for two trains going in opposite directions.  We had to wait there for 20 minutes.  As we were watching them go by, I happen to look in the mirror and see J.  He was so intent on watching each and every car that went by.  He was so disappointed when they finally finished going by.

Oh the Places You Will Go...

I decided to do a fun project with the kids.  Back when I was in high school I had bought a U.S. map and marked every place that I had visited.  That map has long since been lost.  After J was born I had always talked about doing one for the kids.  It took me a long time to find a map that I actually liked though.  Well while we were in Kentucky I finally found one.

We are still marking down where Dad and I have been, but I have the kids parts all marked out!  I choose one color for Dad, and one for me.  We gave J,C,K, and D all one color until they are old enough to be traveling by themselves. 

I am excited to see how this map develops and where our family goes!

“Oh the places you'll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all.”
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!

25 days left of summer!

I am trying to keep the kids entertained still.  They are still at the age where they get very excited for school to start.  No matter how hard I try some days, they are so restless!  J and K have been wrestling, which soon turns into fighting.  D thinks that he can now join in on that.  C just wants to see her friends!

I am glad they are excited about school.  I would hate to have it the other way.  I just wish they would sometimes give me a full day of sanity without, HOW MANY MORE DAYS MOM?!!??!  Oh I am kidding, I love it!

D (almost) birthday

Check out D's face!

 It has become a tradtion that we have D's birthday down in Kentucky.  We are usually down there on his birthday.  This year we were early, but we have become accustom to doing it.  So we had a little party for him, just a few gifts.  Nothing too big at all.

Blowing out candles

 He loved it (what kid  woulnd't love getting cake, and presents!)!

My silly kids

And silly Dad!

Traveling South

Our vacation was moved a few days earlier than expected, and not for a good reason.  Dads Uncle passed away from his battle with cancer.  I will honestly say, I HATE CANCER!  This is such a horrible disease. 

So instead of heading strait to Kentucky, we took a detour to Mississippi.  Thank God, our kids are all great travelers!  We only had a few minor hiccups with the trip.  That was mainly with D and K...they decided a couple times that they did not like sitting next to each other!  And they let each other know it!  A little over a 13 hour drive and we were there, southern Mississippi.  It was such a bittersweet beginning to our time off.  I had a chance to meet family members that I have never met before.  We spent 3 days down there with the family, and had quite a lot of entertainment from some family members!

Early Saturday morning we were on our way up to Kentucky.  This is the house we usually stay at.  Since we had added well over 20 hours of unexpected driving to our trip, we did not do much of anything when we got to KY. 

We went to Fort Knox to have lunch with Aunt B.  The kids had a blast seeing all of the "Army Guys"!  It was really neat seeing(from a distance) the building where they kept all of the US Gold supply!

C was such a good traveler!

The most we did was C, Aunt B and myself went to the mall.  While we were at the mall, Dad, J, K, D and Uncle G went fishing.  J was the only one to catch a fish, a cat fish!  He was so proud!  We went out to dinner that night at a wonderful home style restaurant! 

Saturday Dad took me down to where they were fishing and we watched the Alligator Gar, scary looking fish!!!  Then we took J and C back down to go fishing (D and K wanted to stay back at the house).  We started to get nibbles right as the rain came ferociously in!

The massage chairs!

Crackers and ranch dip....

Fort Knox, building where the Gold is kept.

The Gar, can you see it!?