Bedroom Makeover

I saw this amazing deal on a new bedroom comforter set and Sean said go ahead and get it. We are both pretty tired of the old one we have (same one from when we first got married.) I've been wanting to get a blue and brown one for a while. You should check out Bed Bath and Beyond, it cost me $160 with the 20% off coupon in the mail. It came with the king size comforter and 2 shams, 2 sets of 300 count sheets, 3 decorative pillows, a throw, 4 window valances, 2 European Square Shams

Now I have to paint the big burgandy wall behind the bed. I think I'm going to paint it chocolate brown to match. What do you think?

BEFORE

AFTER

Uncle Hess

My brother joined us for a swim at my parents house while they were out of town on Sunday. The boys sure do love playing with Uncle "Hess"!

Asher swimming: Day 2

Asher did amazing again today! I videoed it and I will try and find time to upload it so you can all see how amazing our little swimming Asher is.

Floating...this usually takes a few weeks to get them to do, was completely natural to him. And rolling over to swim was too!
Amazing breath control, never takes in any water and already kicks his feet!!

Perfume

I was putting perfume on yesterday and Boston asked me what it was. I said, "Perfume." He said, "What is that?" So I said he should smell it. He then smiled and said, "You smell like flowers!" How cute is that!! He wanted to put some on but I said mommy's is only for girls but he could wear some of daddy's cologne. So he put it on and was so happy. Then today he came out and said, "Hey mom, I put on some of daddy's cologne!" He was so proud of himself. Growing up so fast!

Asher learning to swim

Asher had his first swim lesson today and he was amazing!! I wish I had videoed it. I will try and do that tomorrow. He's 13 months old now and I just couldn't believe how great he did. He had wonderful breath control, swam to her and even flipped over to float on his back. These things usually take about 2 weeks to get babies to do! Lisa taught Boston and Dallas both to swim and she remarked to me, "Where did you get this kid! He's amazing!!" Boston had his first swim lesson at 22 months and Dallas was 9 months. Dallas was a very difficult one to teach and Lisa ended up giving him over to the owner of Southwest Aquatics (where they take), Joy. She finally got all his quirks worked out and he's an amazing swimmer now. I think I'm going to start the boys on the swim team, just can't decide if we have the time or money. They both did so great last summer with Jamie and have their strokes down awesome (back stroke, butterfly, freestyle). Anyhow...I'll try and remember to take some photos tomorrow and video. The new facility is amazing!

Day 1: Potty Train Dallas

Ok...so I posted a while back how Dallas potty trained himself in 1 day...well that didn't last long. He was accident city and I just put him back in diapers because I just didn't have time to deal with it. Well I decided he was just too dang old and this week I would potty train him. Ha! By noon today he had already had two big poop accidents in the underwear and 4 pee ones that made a big mess! He did actually go on the potty 4 or 5 times (and he wasn't even drinking anything....where did he get all these fluids from???) I decided I don't think I'm cut out for this kind of potty training. I put him back in a diaper at 1pm before we left for the library and Asher's swim lesson. The last thing I needed was a mess outside the house! I really hate the mess and unsanitryness of pee and poop cleanup. Ugh! And why can't he just remember to go. I reminded him about 100 hundred times and kept taking him in there. I don't know what to do. I really don't want to do the whole bribing thing with m&ms but maybe that's the only way with him. I guess every child is different. So maybe I'll get something tomorrow to brib with....parenting...oh the fun!! LOL

Kent in town

We got to go out with our old friend Kent tonight: Wes, Sean and I. We had dinner at The Tavern in Metrowest and it was just fun catching up. Kent used to live in the same apartment complex that Wes did when he first moved back after college. Sean and I had just had Boston and we used to always all hang out. Many late night with all these single friends hanging at our house playing cards and board games...good times!!!!

Real men love Ballet

Amazing dancer from "Center Stage"

And I love this part about my husband. While a musical theatre major for a year (where he met me) he took Ballet. Before this he was a total jock, the basketball player that didn't think much about ballet. But after this class he had a whole new appriciation for ballet. He realized just how hard it is and in many ways harder than the average sport. So over the years we have been able to enjoy ballet today, which is so awesome! I think our favorite thing together was seeing the musical "Movin' Out." Sean loves Billy Joel and it's dances put to live Billy Joel music. AMAZING!





Picture from the movie Center Stage

Well last night I rented the movie "Center Stage." It's about some kids that go into the American Ballet Academy and about the grulling year they endure. (It's not a reality show...all acting.) We loved it and I would recommend it to anyone. Check it out!

What a morning...

Our first morning not having to get up and go to VBS and it ended up being crazier. Come walk in my shoes this morning: Asher woke up at around 2am having wet the bed (so I change the sheets and him with him crying the whole time...get him back to bed.) Wake up at 4am to Dallas wanting to sleep with us (doesn't happen often so I let him...he kicked me for 1 1/2 hr before i took him back to his bed). Then he woke me at 6:30am saying he went poo poo. And yes he had diarrhea all over him and the bed. So I get him changed and then pull the sheets and comforter to wash. Granted I'm still not finished washing and drying the sheets, mattress pad and comforter from the day before when the dog decided to pee in his bed. Then the dog went and peed on Dallas' mattress AGAIN soon after I had taken her outside. What is going on!!! So all day I've spent trying to clean the mattress...but I think we are just going to have to buy a new one. And Dallas must have had about 30 diaper changes with his diarrhea. So its been a fun day of cleaning the house and everyone's bodily fluids off of the house!

VBS 2008 evaluation

Well it went pretty well this year. For sure I won't be working in a preschool room again next year. I enjoy it but it exhausts me and I just don't have the energy I need for my active boys when I get home. I went to bed at 8:30pm last night and woke up at 6:30am still tired this morning. But the boys really enjoyed it this year.

Boston LOVED his class and was singing the songs and doing all the motions right after the first day. One of the music leaders said she actually would look for Boston's big smile and his excitement each day. She said he always new all the motions and words. So proud of him. His teachers gave him a bible and he has cherished it. He carries it everywhere and talks all about "his bible." What a blessing this was. He also got to decorate a pillow case and bring it home. There were a ton of crafts I would scan in if I had time. Really cute ones!

Boston dancing in the Harbor

Dallas was great in his class as well but by the 4th day really just wanted to stay in mommy's class. Poor guy just isn't used to going to something like this everyday and was a little tired and tired of being away from me I think. He was good the first day in my class but today was really acting out more since he was trying to get my attention and Aunt Suzanne who so graciously came to help me since Christie left for Thailand today.

Dallas during Rec time. He's in the blue hawaian shirt Music time in the class...Dallas has the green scarf over his headOn this day we did handprints for the craft and we couldn't get the paint off. So we were the "green hand class"
Asher did wonderful in his class. His teachers really enjoyed him and he took a nap everyday...yah!! (A pic of the boys on the last day. They wore these shirts the first and last day) My class and I waiting outside Harbor for the music and fun. Dallas just LOVED the puppet turtle name "Crash" (like from Finding Nemo movie)
Dallas dancing in the Harbor

Nena was in charge of one of the preschool snack rooms this year and the boys loved going to visit her before AND after VBS. They called it "nena's office." Of course they loved it because she was there, but the food was a definite PLUS! We also ate over in the church's cafeteria a couple of times and I got my favorite, Buffalo Chicken Wrap!

After VBS they went to swim at Nena's (which they did a lot this week) and Asher took a nap and I got to go shopping with Suzanne. She needed some clothes for the Thailand Mission trip that she is leaving for tomorrow. We had such a great time and found some great buys. We should defiantly shop together more often! I so love her!!! What a blessing it is to have her for a sister-in-law!!!

So tonight I'm going to crash and tomorrow we are going NO WHERE. This morning I told the boys that it was the last day of VBS and they said, "so we don't have to go anywhere tomorrow." Poor things. I sure did feel bad this morning because they were all so tired I know they really didn't want to go.

Dentist

I went to the dentist today to have a cavity filled. My dentist, who is a friend of the family and actually lives in the same neighborhood as my parents, recently retired and sold his practice. So this was my first time seeing the new dentist, and someone other than David to do anything to my teeth since I was very young. What a horrible experience. However she shot me to numb me was so excruciating that I actually had that thought during it that I can handle giving birth better than I can handle this. For some reason I feel like I have control over my body and the experience much more with birth than when someone is doing some horrible thing inside my mouth! Ugh....I TRUELY HATE THE DENTIST!!! I couldn't get my body to relax for the life of me. I thought, "My goodness Cricket, you went through over 13 hours of horrible labor pains on pitiocin with no medicine or epidural and were able to get yourself to relax through the contractions but you can't relax for this simple numbing?" I hurt so bad right now that I took Tylenol and I'm going to bed. I will be finding another dentist tomorrow!

My VBS room

Christie and I

Here are some pics of the hard work that was put in last week drawing and creating these things for the room.

I brought the turtle from my parents and hung it from the ceiling about the their pool as well that I filled with balls from our huge ball pit at home. This has been a big hit. Christie made these great lanterns for the room that really brought a lot of color as well. We have 7 boys and 1 sweet girl. They sure do wear me out but they are a lot of fun!

I made one of these for each of us and they had everyone laughing that walked by our room. We called ourselves the Luau Leaders

My quirks

Alright, I've been tagged by several people to list 6 of my quirks....me quirks...ha! (Now my husband is probably rolling on the floor laughing...I'm sure he'd have a whole list) So I'm suppossed to .*Tell about six unspectacular quirks of yours.* Here goes:
1. I like my house clean, free of clutter. Doesn't mean it's always like that, but I can guarantee you if I appear to be having a bad day it probably stems from the fact that my house isn't clean and things are out of order.

2. I like the floors vacuumed. If they could be vacuumed twice a day I would, but with 3 boys I don't find the time for that! I usually do it every other day.

3. I wiggle my toes, ALL THE TIME. My husband is the one who first noticed this forever ago, back when we were dating. It's very strange but I'm constantly wiggling them. And since I'm usually wearing flip flops or something open toed, everyone can see if they really looked closely.

4. I'm like a breastfeeding nazi! None of my kids ever had formula, pumped milk, or a bottle. And I don't look down on those that did, it's just works for me. (Especially since I usually have enough milk to feed triplets!) And I just find it easier and the bonding amazing.

5. I'm always putting something in the automatic ice container part in our freezer. It drives Sean crazy and he even had us put my parents old fridge in the garage to give me more room for freezer stuff...but somehow I still manage to throw something up there...LOL

6. I'm addicted to coca-cola. I know it's horrible for me and that it has many wasted calories, but I can't resist most days. Not to mention, it's caused me so many unwanted cavities over the years. You'd think I'd learn my lesson. I try and eat healthy, organic and all that, but it's here that I fall COMPLETELY SHORT!

So there you go. You all know some things about me that you probably wish you didn't now...LOL

I'm supposed to link you to 6 more friends of mine but I don't have time to link to everyone's blogs right now so I'll just list their names, they know who they are!
Alright girls it's your turn!!
Michelle, Jess, Mindy, Neely, Sharla, Cindy E. & Megan P. (Yes I know that's 7 but oh well!)

Silly Face Monday

Boston grabbed my camera today and wanted me to make silly faces so he could take pictures of me. Then he had me take some of him. It was so funny we were both rolling on the floor laughing so I had to add the pics. It was after a fun first day at VBS and the boys and I were just enjoying some good time together.

He was very specific about what I was to do in order to make it the perfect silly face, "Mommy stick your tongue out...good...now open your eyes wide...good...now put your fingers on in your cheeks...good!"

Him showing me the "perfect" way to do it

VBS 2008

For the last two years I've done photography for the preschool department but this year I thought I would take a break from that (since it required so much work on me once I got home each day - and last year about killed me after having just had Asher and then getting mastitis right after VBS). I signed up for the break room but then my friend Christie had other plans for me. She went on her recruiting campaign (which really meant she called and had me changed to do a room with her.) Its been fun and we have managed to keep it stress free. Today went well (we have 7 boys and 1 girl - all just turned 3 years old.) Here's a picture of our room, you can see the boys are all in there before I dropped them off (they all have matching orange shirts on.) They of course had a blast in their rooms (Asher's teachers told me he was a "delight") Boston thought it was funny to go to Nena's "office" (she's in charge of the break room and he thought this was her office - some office - full of food!!) I look forward to a fun week, especially for the boys!!!

Here's also a picture of our entrance...the roof took some serious work and some good fishing wire, but the picture in my head finally did come true! And we put each kids name on a coconut in the palm trees.

And I superimposed our faces on the hula girls as their "luau leaders"

Happy Father's Day

Asher, Sean and Boston swimming in Aunt Margie's pool a few months ago

It wasn't the most eventful Father's Day today because I had to set up our VBS room today as well. So after church we went to Wendy's (it was fast and easy and we didn't have to wait over an hour to sit down). I did make Sean a breakfast burrito for breakfast (he loves them and I have never made him on before.) We got to church pretty much on time (which says a lot when you have 3 kids and two adults to get there...something ususally always happens to put us behind, even if we start getting ready at 6am!) Then we came home and Sean and Asher took a nap and the kids and I hung out for a while. The boys went with me to church and Sean went to the lake to sign up someone for PPL. He then came and got the boys and took them to Donatos for pizza. They were so excited that daddy was picking them up from their classrooms and taking them to dinner that they told the ladies in their rooms all about it. It was very cute. So they got some good daddy time. Thank you Sean for being a great daddy to our 3 beautiful boys. I'm so glad that God chose you as my husband and to be the father of our children. They do love and adore you so. I finally got the room done at 8pm and I headed home with a tired Asher.

Daddy and Dallas

The service today was awesome! You can view it on the church's website at http://www.firstorlando.com/ Even though he may have been talking to dads it hit home to me as well. You can compare yourself as a parent to other parents. "Oh they are doing a bible study as a family...they do this...they do that...we aren't doing enough." When really what matters is how you act with them every second of everyday. You teach them about Christ in every moment. Deuteronomy 11:18-20 says, "So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 19 Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates" Sometimes we try to make parenting more complicated than it has to be. Just be like Christ, do what he would do and your children will notice this. They will see what is right and what is wrong. They will see your love and know God's love. What a great and impactful service it was.

Daddy and Dallas again

And let me say Happy Father's Day to my dad. What a great dad he is. He's always been there for me growing up and was always there for everything. He sat threw more plays than he ever wanted to I'm sure...LOL And he was usually watching them threw the eye of a lense on a videocamera. He was supportive and never complained. He's so easy going and go with the flow. Thank you for always being so supportive and loving. You did walk the walk with us growing up and I know my faith is strong because of it. Thank you dad!!! (Right is a photo of me and my dad when I was 3 or 4 years old. Bottom is a pic of Boston and Papa when Boston was almost 2 years old.)

Kung Fu Panda

Today Sean and I took Boston and Dallas to see the movie "Kung Fu Panda." We decided to take them to Citiwalk's theatre because we thought it would be pretty exciting. It's the first movie we've taken them to that they both sat threw the whole thing. We had such a great time! The boys loved the movie and we laughed a lot. During the previews after each one Dallas would say, very loudly, "That's cool!" And through the whole movie kept asking, "Is this the end? Is it over?" He sat in my lap the whole time. Boston sat in his own seat and ate a ton of popcorn singlehandedly! I'm so glad they enjoyed the movie and I look forward to taking them to many more this summer! Afterward we took pictures with Hulk, Kung Fu Panda and Wall-e. This was defiantly a highlight!