Jess comes to visit / Disney

Happy Leap Day!

After getting the kids ready for bath last night I got a surprise call from Jessica that she was 45 minutes away from O-town, she lives in Miami. I knew we were going to try and get together today because she was shooting a commercial for Brighthouse but what a great surprise that she was here last night. So she came over and we had the best time together. Sean went to play pool with some guys so it was just us girls. I soooo wish she lived closer! There's nothing like spending time with one of your best friends! I helped her get your blog started and I look forward to being a part of her daily fun as she documents homeschooling. (The plan originally was that we would be homeschooling together...that was until we recently changed our plans).

Then she came back over this morning since the commercial got cancelled and we got to spend the whole morning together! Ya Ya Ya! Thanks again for coming up Jess!

After school Sean and I took the boys to Disney for the evening. Tons of fun like usual, who doesn't have fun at Disney. Only bummer is that Peter Pan is closed for refurbishment...hope it's open soon, I know two boys that are pretty bummed. But Dallas road the kiddie roller coaster again, its been a while since he's wanted to. Sean said he was screaming with laughter, he said it was HILARIOUS!

Checking out the schools together

Sean got to take Boston to school today and Boston was so excited (he took today and yesterday off from work). We all went to pick him up from school so I could take Sean by the two charter schools we are looking at so he could see them (from the outside that is). It was fun driving around together as a family. Afterward we were heading to the grocery store to get stuff to make chili since it's so cold out and saw Twistee Treat. It was 4:30 but we made a spur of the moment decision to spoil dinner and get ice cream first. It was fun and the boys were so excited! Ya for ice cream. Sean and I have to pass Twistee Treat every morning on our way to the gym and its torture sometimes...LOL

Where to send our kids to school???

Oh the schooling debate: public school, private school, homeschool, charter school.... When I was little I think almost everyone went to public school and it wasn't a huge decision for our parents. Now, ugh, it is such a big decision. So I battle with stressing over it and daily giving it up to God and putting it all in His hands. The stress of it all alone can be so overwelming. I went today to look at another possible charter school and liked it a lot. That's good. At least I know I have two choices I would be happy with. We were going to homeschool until we both felt God speaking to us not to and comfirming it in several different ways. So now we are exploring the charter school option. Private schools in Orlando are about $10,000 a year and for us that's not an option (especially when you mulitply it by how many kids we have!) I am VERY pleased with what I have seen so far in charter school and from what I've heard from other parents that send their children there. So I'm looking forward to the schooling adventure God has in store for us!

Girls night out

Tonight at the last minute my neighbor Teresa and I decided to go to the movies to see the movie, "Definatly, Maybe." It was really cute, but most importantly it was great to get out with a girlfriend. The big boys spent the night at my parents so I only had Asher for the evening. I felt revived and rejuvinated after an evening out! Thanks again for going with my Teresa and I so enjoyed the conversation and fun times!

3rd tooth

Asher has been teething this 3rd tooth since Sunday (upper left). He ran a low grade fever all day Sunday and has been up Sunday and Monday nights screaming in pain. Poor thing. Today I can see the white of the tooth behind his gum, its just ready and waiting to come out....come on already...I don't think I can take another sleepless night. He's been chewing on anything he can get his hands on. And he eyes anything and everything the boys and I are eating, wanting a taste of it.
He crawls EVERYWHERE now and tries to pull himself up on everything. My little baby is growing fastly into a little toddler before my eyes. I'm cherishing the moments of baby cuddling!

Boston talks about babies

Boston with Asher when he was 1 week old

Today while driving to school Boston pointed out a bird on top of a car and laughed and said, "Maybe she is laying eggs there!" Then he asked me how animals have babies and I told him "The mommy's carry them in their belly, they don't lay eggs." Then he talked all about me having Asher in my belly and giving birth to him at the hospital and how he got to come to the hospital and see me and there was a train. It was just so cute to hear him talk about all the details of that. Then he pauses and says, "Mommy, I WISH you could have babies in your belly again!!" I laughed and said, "Oh really. Me too. How many babies do you want mommy to have?" He said, "TWO!" I replied, "Oh my! That's a lot. Do you want them to be boys, girls or a boy and a girl." And without a pause he shouts, "Girls!" He was so convinced Asher was going to be a sister. Then tonight as he was saying his prayers he said, "Please God let mommy have baby girls in her belly." A child after my own heart! And I swear I don't put all this into his head. He's been talking about having a baby sister since soon after Dallas was born. I think he woud be an awesome big brother to a little sister since he's always looking after all the girls at school. So who knows...maybe God will answer Boston's prayers...he's been waiting on my own for quite sometime now about having a little girl. All in His perfect timing I'm sure!

Disney

The boys exploring Tom Sawyer's Island together

After church today we took the boys to Magic Kingdom. They were so excited and have been talking about going every day for about 2 weeks. Tom Sawyers Island was a big hit today. They showed Daddy all around the island for the first time. I think this is one of the greatest attractions here for boys. What boy doesn't love a fort you can shoot guns out of and bridges and CAVES! Poor Asher hung in there with his little fever from the two top teeth coming in. Boston was hoping the lights would be on in Space Mountatin when we road People Mover but they weren't this time and he remarked, "Oh man, the lights aren't on!"

Me and my boys on the bridge (notice the new glasses!)

Dinner guest: The Heltons

Tonight we had our friends John and Christi and their two boys over for dinner. What a great time. The boys all got along perfect we didn't have any problems at all (which when you get 4 boys under the age of 4 together usually you have some issue.) Come to find out Teague and Boston are in choir together and we never knew that! I think we laughed the whole night away. We are getting ready to help them serve in the college ministry and looking forward to it. John has started teaching their class on Sunday morning and Sean and I are just going to kind of hang out with the kids. Funny that they asked us to do that because I have felt God calling me to work with younger girls for sometime now but didn't really know how to go about doing it. So I do hope God blesses the time we have with the college kids. Anyhow...we had such a blast with them and look forward to getting together more!

Kindergarden

The search for the perfect kindergarden for Boston is on. Of course I have my favorite and pray everyday that we will be picked in the lottery to go there. I have us in several lottery for charter schools here and have all confidence that he will get in the school that God feels he is suppossed to go to. My friend Mindy said that's the best thing about lottery's into schools for Christians, it's all in God's hands. But I did go to the open house for the one I most want him to go to today and it was all that I hoped it would be. God is testing my will go either hold on to it myself or give it all to Him...and so far I'm keeping myself in check!

Beverly Bradley

Tonight I got to hear Beverly Bradley speak at our church. She is the wife of Reb Bradley who wrote the book "Child Training Tips: What I wish I knew when my children were young" and the series Sean and I took at church "Biblical Insights into Child Training." It was the most awesome speaker I have heard ever. It hit right home for me and I was so moved. The topic was "Woman of God: Controller or Servant." Here's some great quotes from the talk:

We control at the same level we fear
We serve to the level we trust
Luke 1:14 We can serve God without fear
Power and control is deadly and the story of Jezebel in 1Kings
God doesn't MAKE things Peaceful....HE IS PEACE
Psalm 37 (Read it...its amazing..if you don't have your bible out look it up on http://www.biblegateway.com)
To be sure that your way, your plans have to happen will result in HAVIC
You want your kids to be drawn to Jesus through you...because you glow and radiate because of Him
When we obey and trust God our family will be blessed
Where you are right now is exactly where you are suppossed to be so he can show Himself to you!

Me writing about it doesn't even do it justice. If you are really interested in the talk they taped it and are selling it on cd for $20 (that includes shipping). Just write to them on their website about the taping from First Baptist Orlando.

http://www.familyministries.com/

Walking in my shoes....

Both Boston and Dallas love walking around in Sean and I's shoes. Its especially amusing to me to find them trying to walk around in my high heels. Today Boston came to show me how he was walking in them and I had to snap a photo. This will be great material to show future girlfriends and get a big laugh!

Weekend Update

Another family weekend. Saturday we got to go to Aaron Cronk's 1 1/2 birthday party (he had his 1st birthday while he was still in Guatamala). It was a great birthday party and the boys especially loved the firetruck theme. The funniest part was that the moment we walked in the went right for all the toys and first thing they did was set up a tea set to have tea together and then their other little friend Luke joined them. Boys! Girl toys are just so inviting when you never get to play with them. I'll have to have tea with the boys soon!

Sunday we made another trip to IKEA, this time the boys and I stayed in the car while daddy went in for supplies. Then Sean spent most of the day putting the desk tops together. Boston was so funny, he went and got all his tools to help out. Dallas and him made it their job to take the tape of the boxes to get to the project. It was really cute to watch. I did a lot of playing inside and out (of course with the Stitelers...boy to all 5 of them love to play together.)

Asher's 9 months old yesterday

Asher is 9 months old! Can't believe it. He's scooting around everywhere and I just know that one of these days he's going to take off and none of us will be able to keep up with him. Guess i better get all those baby proofing things out. Here comes Asher! He still only has 2 teeth and it seems like he's been cutting the other two for months now! He's 19.9 lbs and eating very good. He enjoys baby food but doesn't eat a whole lot. Still enjoys nursing, 3 more months to go. He has started waking in the middle of the night to eat because he's not eating as much baby food as he probably should, but I'm sure he will grow out of that soon as he starts eating more solid foods. He truely is such a happy baby! His smiles, laughs, cooing, babbling, jumping, excitement are just so adorable! He makes me want to have 10 more!

Happy Valentine's Day

I treated the boys to some yummy homeade banana nut pancakes with whipped cream and valentine sprinkles with strawberries. They loved it! Of course they both were even more interested in learning how to flip the pancakes. Boston usually helps me out in the kitchen but Dallas is getting old enough now that he also wants to help and it's not so easy when you are teaching two of them (and not burn or ruin the meal LOL) but it's all about that fun!

Boston loving on Asher. They looked so cute in their red plaid.

Yummy Valentine Breakfast

I love the look on his face looking at his chocolate. We gave each of them this little box of chocolate the had a train on the front and said "I choo choose you"
Dallas was so funny, he was really excited about his chocolate until he bit into one and he found the center was some kind of strawberry filling and NOT chocolate. "Yuk!" He said. "I don't like this chocolate mom." LOL
Asher even got to have a pancake this morning and he went crazy over it.

We ate lunch today at Sams...yummy pizza. I love taking the boys there to eat. And it only costs be about $5 to feed all of us with drinks. Can't beat that. My mom and dad celebrated Valentine's for lunch and mom babysat for us so we could go out. We went to Citiwalk with Wes and Suzanne to see the movie "Fools Rush" and grabbed a bit to eat at the Nascar Restaurant (the one with a shorter wait). Great movie and wonderful company!

Map

A few months ago I added buddy mapping and many of you put yourself on the map. For those how didn't take a few seconds and add where you are to the map! Just click on the map at the bottom of the page

Boston the ladies man

When I picked Boston up from school yesterday he was telling me all about his day at school and he was telling me that today he was on the girls team and had a great time. He was talking about playing on the playground. I guess the girls wanted him to play on their team. I thought this was so cute and says a lot about his sweet, caring personality that the girls want him to play with them. Its great that he can be ALL BOY and run, jump, chase, wrestle and do all the things boys do and still play with girls and have a blast. This morning JT was at school but Boston heard Lauren and Caitlin outside playing (they had the day off) and went over to play with them and then invited them over. I ended up helping them use all our geotrax to build a huge track and they had such a great time. Boston just loves playing with them as much as he does JT (they they are 7 and 9 years old) Funny thing is that Boston is about 2 1/2 years younger than Lauren but he looks the same age!

Weekend work

What a busy weekend we had. Saturday Sean had a PPL Meeting and I took the boys to a Austin's birthday party. They had such a great time. It was a Thomas party so that made them even more excited. Here are some photos of them them hitting the pinata.
Then we headed back home and met Sean and his parents at our house to start installing our laminate wood flooring. They watched the kids while Sean and I got to work. We worked up until about 10:30 that night. Sunday we went to church and then headed IKEA for some more items for our room and had lunch there. Then back to work. We finally finished around 8:30 and it looks great! I'm so proud of us for doing it all by ourselves (and only with the illustrated directions ikea gives you.) Once we figured out what we were doing (after having to uninstall a few rows and start over) it wasn't that hard to do. Took us about 10 hours total (from taking carpet, padding, baseboards and stuff to installing all the flooring stuff) All we have to do now are the base boards and crown molding. Next room....the living room!

Asher crawled for the FIRST TIME!

Asher crawls! Today I was putting away some things in my bedroom and had him sitting on the floor and he saw our cat and looked like he might go after him so I grabbed the video camera and got it on video! I was so excited. I'll have to figure out how to post it on youtube to show you all. He was so cute trying to get to our cat Baby. I'm sure in a few days he'll be all over the house! Now I'll have my work cut out for me...gotta pack up all little toys that he'll find to put in his mouth!!!

Another fun friday

I had a eye doctor appt this morning and thank goodness nothing has changed. The real reason for my glasses is because I have a stigmatisim in both eyes, my actual eye sight is pretty good. But she couldn't dialate me again, thank goodness, because I'm nursing. Last time I came in I was pregnant. She said I better get back in here before I get pregnant again...I just laughed.

When we got home we asked JT to come over to play again. The boys just love having him over and he's been coming over a lot on MWF's. It helps Teresa out a lot with homeschooling her older girls. Boston and JT love playing together and Dallas LOVES playing with them too. He does really well for the most part but then there are those times I can tell he's younger. JT is about 8 months younger than Boston so they are pretty much on the same age level. I feel bad for Dallas a lot of times because he so badly wants to be on their level but sometimes just falls behind in playing with them. He really needs another little 3 year old to play with sometimes.

I'm trying to teach Boston to include him, but I know sometimes he will need to just be able to play with a friend without having to include Dallas. So today I tried to play with Dallas more while JT was here to make sure he wasn't left out. It worked really well. Next year JT and Dallas will be going to the same school so maybe they will have a chance to bond more with each other then.

I thought today was going to be the day that Asher started crawling. He was really getting himself ready! He even tried to pull himself up on the couch today to reach a bell one of the boys left. He just loves that bell. Mainly because he wants to chew on it (another metal object for his teething!) He was so proud of himself I had to snap a pic.

Boston got all greens at school and was just so excited to show mommy and daddy. I just love his face when he has something proud to show us....you can see him looking for that "I'm so proud of you"....and he LIGHTS UP! I just love it! When we got home Teresa called to see if I wanted to send the boys over to play but we just ended up all hanging out together and heading to the new playground in the neighborhood next to ours. Its so great to have them as neighbors with kids our same age. Fun for the kids...good adult time for us!

Bubbles

The boys just love bubbles. Monday we went in the front yard and I blew bubbles everywhere and they just laughed, giggled, chased and popped bubbles forever! I was so much fun watching them delight in such a little thing. I love bubbles!

2008 Renovate

After much discussion as to if we are going to move or stay in this house I think we have decided at the moment that this is the place for us to be right now. But we need to renovate and move some things around for our growing family. Right now we are combining our offices into one. Before Sean was in one of the bedrooms that the previous owner had converted into an office with built in cabinets and desk. I was in the front room (which used to be the dining room) with all the boys trains and some other toys (sort of their playroom as well you might say.) So now we are turning that room into both our office and the other bedroom (old Sean office) into a playroom. I don't know why we didn't think of this a long time ago. It makes so much more since. So Tuesday I painted the room. Only took me 2 hours, record time for me. Saturday we are putting in wood laminate flooring and Sunday hopefully installing the desks. The walls used to be burgandy and now they are brown. Looks soooo much better! I'll keep you posted.

God speaks to me

I'm taking a class at church, "Discerning the Voice of God." It's a study by Pricsella Sellers and it's amazing. I always have wanted to hear God speak to me more but now I'm realizing he has been, I've just not been noticing or I didn't think it was Him. I do notice that when I'm reading his word daily I hear him more, I notice the signs he gives me, the words of encouragement or wisdom. But lately I've been letting life get in the way of carving out time for him. Whenever I'm doing a class I notice my walk with him gets stronger. I MAKE myself MAKE the time for him. I need to be more disciplined.

I can remember two moments in my life (more recently) that God spoke clearly to me and the peace that came over me was overwelming. One situation was back when Boston was 3 and Dallas was 18 months I was planning on putting them both in the Mom's Day Out program at our church (by the way...this isn't a free program like it used to be when I was a kid...so expensive!) Anyhow...Sean and I had discussed it (notice I didn't discuss it with God) and decided it would be a good thing. But on one praticularly stressful day with the kids, a VERY stressful day with the kids, I was in the middle of the living room floor crying out to God "Why does this have to be so hard." And just as clear as day he answered, "It doesn't have to be. You are making it this hard. Don't enroll the boys in Mom's Day out next year and you will be blessed." PEACE Peace like a river flowed into my soul and my heart was happy and still. And then my human head kicked back in with a million questions and contraditions to why that would not be a good thing. "Really?" I answered. "How can NOT putting them in help me out?" This was in May. I planned on following His plan, but never actually told the school. Thinking maybe God would change his mind (The $160 in deposits was not refundable). But come August God had not spoke any differently to me about it and I called the program and told them I would not be putting either of the boys in. And what an awesome year it was with them. I got pregnant that summer with Asher and my first trimester was so tiring. I couldn't have imagined trying to get everyone up and out the door 3 days a week. It would have been so stressful, all the rushing and driving. We had a wonderful time together, especially before adding another member to the family. I hope to hear God more clearly now so I can be blessed with peace like that more often. When I'm on God's path for me it all just make since.

Brian Regan

I talked about Brian Regan the other day and thought I would post a clip of him. So funny about the show Dora the Explorer

Weekend update

Check out all the new posts from Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday!

New Years Resolutions

Yes I know it's already February but I've had these in my head but not really following through. I thought maybe if I put them on my blog for myself to actually "see" and others to hold me accountable then maybe they would start happening! LOL

1. Lose 15 lbs. Still have some more baby weight to go. But I'm working out 5 days a week to make this happen. I think I might also do 2 days of pilates

2. Read the New Testament. I usually make my resolution to read the bible all the way through, so this year I decided to make the goal a little smaller and maybe it would work. I actually bought a small "Read the New Testament in one year, five minutes a day..for Busy Moms". I thought..."well I can do that!"

3. Eat healthier. Since I've been either pregnant or breastfeeding since 2002 (yes, can you believe that!) I sort of "treat" myself to a lot of BAD FOOD. Coca Cola and chocolate being my worst temptation. Sugar in general is my downfall. But I've vowed to concer it this year and become the healthier eater I know I have inside of me...somewhere...below the sugar.

4. Read 12 books this year. I usually start a book and read about 3 chapters and get distracted by my life and never finish. So I figured 1 book a month is a pretty good goal. I'm half way through my first.

5. Pray with the boys more. We do all our meals but I really want to take the time to pray about anything and everything that might be happening so they will know they can talk to him anytime, anywhere about anything.

6. Get closer to God...really this would be my #1 goal. To spend time with him everyday.

7. Memorize 4 bible verses a month. I need more ammunition to fight spirtual battles the devil throughs my way.

8. Write thank you notes in a more timely manner....ugh...for some reason this is very hard for me. Not that I'm not thankful, but actually writing it on paper for some reason takes me forever.

9. Get rid of any clutter. How I will do this is by throwing away 1 trash bag of clutter and donating 1 bag a week. That ought to do it!

10. Have 2 date nights a month with Sean

11. Go to Disney and Sea World once a month with the kids

12. Make digital scrapbooks of the boys (the only scrapbook I've actually done for them was Boston's 1st year..horrible...so I would like to at least be up to date on this by the end of the year) So that's 8 years worth to do. Boston 2nd, 3rd, 4th years; Dallas 1st, 2nd, 3rd; Asher 1st; and family blog book. So I'll plan on one a month. Here's my schedule:

Feb-Family 2007

March-Dallas 1 year

April-Boston 2 year

May-Asher 1 year

June- Dallas 2

July-Boston 3

August-Dallas 3

Sept-Boston 4

Oct-Asher (start on second year)

So that's 12 resolutions. More than enough. For all 12 months of the year.

IKEA date

Sean and I are trying to figure out how to either make this house work or we are going to have to move. We really don't want to move. Not that we LOVE this house, but we LOVE our neighborhood. I think if we did some renovations to the house it would feel more new (like wood floors instead of the old carpet). So we figure that if we combine our offices (right now my office is in the front room with all the boys trains) this would free up a room that we could make into a playroom. I think this would probably help with toy clutter. If there was 1 room for all the toys...and doors in which I could just close the door to not see the mess...this would make for a more organized, efficient house. But since it's the first room you see when you walk into the house we want to make it look nice. So tonight we planned on going to the IKEA store to check out some stuff. After hanging out with our neighbors, the Stitelers, they decided to meet us up there. So Dale and Pat came to watch our kids, they bought theirs and checked them into the wonderful FREE childcare IKEA offers, and us adults went to have dinner at the IKEA restaurant. The food was cheap and really good. We had so much fun hanging out with! I think we might do this more often! IKEA date night...LOL Afterward Sean and I got some great ideas for our office, wood flooring for the house, kids room storage system and more. Now we just need money to buy it all!!!

another singer

Yes, another Whitman singer. While I was reorganzing the boys closet Asher was playing on the floor. He grabbed this microphone and was singing to his hearts content. It was just so cute. He was really doing some great babbling. I really should have grabbed the video camera, but at least I got these shots.

Sitting up

Today I went in to Asher's room after I had put him down to sleep only to find him SITTING UP playing with his mobile. I had put him in their on his back and he had found a way to sit himself up. I guess it's time to move the bed down to a lower level! He was just so cute in there and so proud of himself that he could actually reach the animals he's watched for months now on his mobile. It was like a high milestone in his little life..."YES! I've can actually REACH these crazy looking things!" I quickly grabbed the camera.

Waffles and Persistant Dallas

Dallas is addicted to waffles. Whole grain blueberry waffles. He'll eat them frozen (which he learned about from Boston-its Boston's favorite way to eat a waffle) or toasted. But usually he gets very impatient waiting for it to toast. Most of the time he has me hold him and we count together 1...2...3...4...5...6..7...8...9..10! And he can hear the sound of the toaster popping it up from a mile away...."READY!!!" It's so cute how he screams that. I had not bought waffles for about 5 days and Sean picked some up from the store. In an attempt to catch up for lost time he ate a total of 10 throughout the entire day!! The boy seriously is addicted. In general he loves bread, anything of the sort: crackers, plain loaf of bread, toasted bread, hot dog buns, roles, anything bread he'll eat it...guareenteed!

This morning I was awoke by Dallas at 6am requesting waffles. I walked, half awake, to the kitchen to find that I had forgotten that we don't have any. I informed Dallas of the situation and offered raison toast instead, but like the presistent child that he is he insisted on waffles. Let me go down now saying that this child is going to be an awesome business/sales man someday because he IS the MOST persistant person I know. No NEVER means no in Dallas' world. It just means ask again...and again...and again....100 times until the person blows a fuse. Its especially annoying when it's 6am and you just want to crawl back into bed (especially since dumb me stayed up past midnight..DUMB) So...with the mommy not so happy face I informed him (for the about 30th time) that we don't have any waffles. He finally gave in to the raison toast, anticipating mom's head combusing with pure frustration. I crawled back to my bed for about 30 more minutes of sleep when I was awoken by Boston in Asher room hanging out. What is it with my early risers????? Anyhow..it's now 2:30pm and Dallas has continued to ask for waffles all day. It's not just waffles with Dallas. He's very persistant with everything. I think this will be a good trait for him in the future. He will be very successful....that is...if he can survive the 3s!

TGIF

I had a shopping spree at our local belks store that is going out of business. Most everything was 50% off and an extra 70% off that. Insane! I had a gift card from my cousin Connie that I've been waiting to use and this was the perfect time! I got so many awesome outfits. And then my mom even bought me some. Now I have some clothes that fit me right (aren't too big or too small...which seemed to be the case lately!) I just love them!

Wes and Suzanne came over for dinner tonight. We had a great time hanging out with them. The guys were too tired to play cards so we just hung out and then watched a dvd of Brian that our friend John had loaned to Sean. What a hilarious guy!!!