Aunt Margie's Beach House

We went to Aunt Margie's beach house in Indian Rocks Monday till Wednesday. (The boys and I, my mom and Suzanne-my sister-in-law). We had a great time. The boys love the beach and swimming in the pool. Asher stayed in the house most of the time but did make it out to the pool twice. We got to hear lots of stories about the family as we were going threw all the old family photos. I'm working on a cookbook for our family reunion as well as a heritage album to document who all these people are in the photos because Aunt Margie is the only one that knows who they are. Aunt Margie is my grandma's (my mom's mom) sister.

Swimming playdate

What a fun day we had today! Two of my girlfriends, Stef and Nicki, brought their kids over to play in the pool at my parents house. The kids had a blast (and of course it was great having some girl time). Stef's son is the same age as Boston and Nicki's son is the same age as Dallas.

I have been taking the boys swimming almost everyday this summer and they are such good swimmers! Boston swims all over. He loves diving down deep to retrieve toys and he is awesome at all his strokes (free style, back stroke, butterfly). Dallas is also a great swimmer doing great at his free style but he just can't remember when and how to take a breath. So we will be going to back for a few days of refersher next week. He wants so badly to keep up with Boston. Its so much fun to watch them do cannon balls and slide down the slide. And what else are you going to do in July heat in Florida!

On Monday this week my friend Val brought her daughter over to play with the boys. She was just so precious and cute. Of course the boys were so excited they were running all over the house. They love having company!

The picture above is from a few weeks ago for my dad's birthday. Boston had Uncle Wes on the other end blowing water threw and Boston and Dallas liked to hold it up and spray it at daddy. What could be more fun!

Dallas' Adventure

Having 3 kids

Everyone asks me. So what is it like having 3 little boys. Was it harder going from 1 to 2 or 2 to 3? My initial response would have to be that going from 1 to 2 was harder. Boston was only 20 months old and needed me a lot more. Now with Boston 4 and Dallas 2 they entertain and help each other so much. And I've kind of trained them to do a lot of things themselves now. Don't get me wrong, it is a handful with all three but nothing unmanageable. I would say that hardest part right now is the fact that Dallas is in his two's stage of training and disciplne. But this would be happening whether there was a baby in the house or not. Asher is such a blessing. He is the happiest baby and sleeps all the time. He's so easy going. The fact that he sleep 12 hours straight a night makes a big difference as well. I think if I was still sleep deprived my answer might be a little different! LOL And I've worked very hard to make the transition of having a new baby in the house easy for the big boys. And so far there hasn't been one instance of jealousy with the big boys. All they do is love and kiss over Asher, want to show him off to everyone and they are so proud that he's their little brother. When he starts crying they run right over to sing him a lullaby or call me to tell me he needs my help. They are quick to suggest what the problem is as well: he needs to be feed, diaper change, etc. And diaper changes are a point of excitment in the house. Everyone likes to come help out and shoot the diaper into the diaper pail like a basketball. It's a bunch of fun! Well Asher is calling to be fed and the boys have made a new game of rolling all their toys under the train table...what a mess. Until next time.....

Boston's Adventure

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Our Future President

I took this today with Asher's little "Future President" shirt on with the CUTEST smile and had to share it. Wouldn't you love a president that smiled that cute!!! (Not that I would ever wish that kind of stress on any of my boys LOL)

Mommy Doctor's Appt

Today I had my after baby doctor's appt. (Above pictures are from Dr Walker - who I wanted to deliver Asher so badly, and Grace-from the front desk. Two of my FAVORITE people!) It was great getting so see everyone in the doctor's office. I'm really going to miss seeing them so often! I know it must be the best ob-gyn office anywhere. I don't think many other people actually enjoy going to their doc as much as I do! It's all about the people there!!

Asher has been sleeping through the night now for about 2 weeks (10 hours a night) It's really awesome. And then he will be awake for a couple of hours in the morning and go back to sleep around 11 or 12 and sleep, wake up to eat about 4 hours later, and go back to sleep until about 5 or6. It's really awesome. I'm so blessed! I guess if I could have picked which baby to be the most laid back, the third is probably the way to go. I wouldn't have much time for an acid reflux baby right now. That you God for that answered prayer!

I was reading an article the other day about colic babies and a quote for the article was "it's about the roughest introduction to motherhood one can imagine." And that's the truth!! Having gone through two acid relux/colic babies and having to change my diet COMPLETELY was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. But we all survived! I remember Dallas crying for 5 hours a stretch. Wow....what a test of your patience! And now we have Asher, which does mean "happy", and he lives up to that!

We are off to the lakehouse for the 4th of July. I hope everyone has a great holiday celebrating this great country we live in.

My photos new site

I'm going to begin loading my pictures to a new site called Flickr.com Here is the website to check out pictures I load onto the website. At the moment the only photos I have uploaded here are the photography I did at Chad and Lauren's wedding. Look for more coming soon.....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cricketsphotography/sets

Homeschooling change

(Picture of Boston, Asher and I at the lakehouse this weekend. Dallas was sitting on my lap but as soon as the camera came out he jumped off. He's usually a camera hog!)

There has been a slight change in my homeschooling for this coming year with Boston. I was game and ready to go when I found out about a new program in Florida called "Voluntary Pre-K). It's where the state pays for you kid to go the the preschool of your choice (as long as it is on their pre-approved list). This also includes Christian Preschools! I couldn't believe it. Thanks to Tina for initially telling me about it months ago and then for Tammy for pointing out that private Christian schools are on the list and how easy it is! So this week I found a great school that Boston will be going to next year. And the best part is that it's from 1pm-4pm. I can drop him off, give the other boys their naps (HAVE ACTUAL "ME" TIME!) and then go pick him up. Amazing. And it's 5 days a week. This was an answer to prayers from God for sure. Right when I was questioning if He was going to start answering any of my prayers He bombarded me with several. Thanks to God for revealing Himself to me once again! And don't get me wrong. I am a HUGE fan of homeschooling and think we will probably end up doing it at some point full time. But for this season with a newborn and 2 year old and Boston dying to play with some other kids I think this will be the best bet. And I'm still going to continue all our preschool homeschooling stuff anyhow.

This was a crazy week for me. I had been feeling sick since VBS ended last Friday and then it just got worse. I came down with Mastitis. HORRIBLE! Wow, not only are you in a lot of pain and still trying to nurse the baby, but you feel like you have the flu, with fever, chills, headache....ugh. But I got to see Dr Walker today and he got me on antibiotics and I'm feeling much better now. Still fighting it but hopefully by the middle of this week I'll be all better.

This weekend I went to the lakehouse while Sean was in OKC doing meetings for our PrePaid Legal business. The boys have loved playing on the beach and lake (even though we now have 2 little alligators that keep hanging around the dock). If it weren't illegal I would kill those little buggers. They might not be a threat at this size but wait until they get bigger! I'll have to take a picture and post it on here, especially for those of you out of state that are feaking out at the moment that we would even swim in a lake with alligators. LOL Crazy Floridians. Remember-alligators are not after humans like crocodilles.

Looking forward the 4th of July, although I think it's going to be a much smaller bash than we usually have. But still lots of fun. Hope everyone stays safe and has a great relaxing time!!