Preschool Reunion and night out

Today we went to meet up with some of Boston's friends from preschool for some fun times at Burger King. The kids had a blast running around in the playground and eating together. They sure did miss seeing each other everyday!

Today was probably the first day that I've been so tired from the pregnancy. I haven't really felt many effects from it but today it zapped every bit of my energy. By the time Sean got home I was in desperate need of a break. So with the kids feed and ready for bed I headed to the Mall to talk to the Apple people about things not working right on my iphone. Suzanne, my sister-in-law, was so awesome to meet me up there for some companionship! She's awesome!! I also bought the book The Shack. I've had so many friends talk about how great it is and I've been in need of a good fiction book, it's been years since I've read fiction. The other night I went looking on my bookshelf for a fiction book to read and all there was were books on parenting, being a better wife and christian, photography and more self help. Ugh. I'm tired of those kind of books, I need something to escape into. So I'm looking forward to starting it at the beach this weekend.

Then Suzanne and I headed to Cheesecake Factory for a light dinner and dessert. What a blast we had talking and laughing and just enjoying each others company. I'm so lucky to be blessed with a sister in law that's also such a great friend!!!

Swim lessons and Shopping with kids

Asher had swim lessons today and his instructor suggested he do the next swim meet because he's just so good and it would be fun to show him off. She practiced with him and he swam the length of the pool twice. He's so amazing!

I know a lot of people that dread going shopping with their kids or taking them to the grocery store. For me it's sort of like a vacation. I enjoy getting out of the house and so do my kids. They aren't always on their "best" behavior but they act better out than they do in most of the time. They are usually annoying each other more at home it seems. So after swim lessons today we went to Target in search of some more uniform clothing for Boston's school and then ended up at Old Navy for some too. They were great and fun.

Afterward we headed over to my parents to swim and my Uncle Mike and Aunt Elsie showed up (they are leaving to go to the mtns with my parents tomorrow). We had a blast with them and enjoyed a fun dinner together, Suzanne even showed up.

Friendship

I've realized it's so hard to stay in touch with friends lately. With a busy family of 3 kids and one on the way and both sets of family living in town, it makes it very hard. I don't like to spend a lot of time on the phone talking with girlfriends because I'm usually doing something fun with the boys and right now in my life I feel like this time with them is fleeting and I must cherish it as much as possible. So as much as I wish to spend more time with my girlfriends and talk all the time, I feel like this must be a season in my life where family, being my #1 focus after God, is where the majority of my time lies. So I hope those of you who do read my blog, and wonder why you don't see or hear from me as often, understand that my heart also goes out to my friends, just that my time might be limited at the moment. I do enjoy my monthly girls night out with a few of my sweet girlfriends and the occasional double date night.

And I cherish my girlfriends who are also in the same place as me. Its those sweet and understanding friends that I can talk to only a few times month and pick up from where we left off like no time has passed.

I've especially found the last month my focus greatly shift toward family duties. With school starting soon I feel this major desire to spend as much time with the boys as possible. I know a huge change is getting ready to take place in our life, a change that will never go back to the way it has been. I've always had the boys at home, but starting this year, we will always have school. It's such a strange concept to me. School....boys gone all day...growing up...it all seems to be happening so fast. I do love my days with them, even though some days I wish I could send them off! LOL Growing up, it's a hard thing for a mother to watch sometimes, and a joyful thing on the other hand.

With that said...and too many words later...I hope all my friends who read my blog understand that I love and appreciate all of you. And don't ever think I'm trying to neglect our friendship, you are always in my thoughts.

Asher's 1st walking shoes

I took Asher today to get his first Stride Rite walking shoes. He's a 5 wide. All my kids had different widths. Boston was a medium and Dallas a double wide. Too funny. Asher sure loves his new shoes and loves walking around, especially marching around. He now prefers walking to crawling and is very good at walking around everywhere fast! Now I really have to keep an eye on him, he's so fast!

Test strips cheap

For my last two pregnancies (and this one) I ordered pregnancy test strips from this online site I found. Depending on how many you purchase they are about 80 cents a piece with free shipping for orders over $14.99. I've had a few people ask me for the site recently and thought I would share it with all you online. They also sell ovulation test strips and lots more. So check them out and say some money!

They had a sale going on and I had an email from them with a coupon code but can't find it in my in box. It was for 10% off test strips. I'll keep looking for it and post the code if I find it.

http://www.early-pregnancy-tests.com/pregnancytests.html

Train Trip!!!

Today my parents and I headed down to the Orlando Train Station to take the boys on a train ride to Tampa, Fl. When we got there we found out that the train was running 2 hours late (coming from New York-what happened to trains always being on time?) So we headed to the downtown library to kill the time. They were playing the movie Aladdin on a big screen tv so the boys watched with Nena while Asher and I walked around. He's walking so good! Then we got some McDonald's to eat and back to the station to wait for the train to come. The boys were SO excited!!!! When it finally drove up they just couldn't believe it!

Watching for the train...which way will it come from?

Asher hanging out with Papa waiting for the train

Inside the train station getting our tickets
Boston and the TrainDallas and the TrainTaking our tickets
We were able to get 4 seats all next to each other and the boys jumped in their seats more than ready for the ride. Asher and Boston were having a great time together. Asher kept pointing out and saying something. Boston just kept laughing and pointing with them. They were so cute!Asher usually takes 2 naps but he didn't want to miss a thing on the train so he skipped both of them and then fell asleep in my moms arms as we were pulling into the Tampa Train StationThanks to my dad for driving over to Tampa to pick us up!!!! He's such a trooper!!! The smile on Boston and Dallas' faces was just adorable. Throughout the ride Boston just kept saying, "This is the best day I ever had!" and "this is the most fun things I've ever done!" Oh yes...the the boys called the train a bullet train because it sure did look like one. Not like the steamer engines from Thomas the Train. Boston looked out one window and had his face GLUED to the window the whole time. Dallas enjoyed looking at all the other trains but got a little tired of it after a while. After a little while of sitting, and Dallas starting to get a little tired of sitting, we headed to the dining car. But first we found the lounge car, which I thought was the dining car, and got our snacks at the counter and then found out there was an actual dining car.

The boys in the dining carSo we just walked down to see it and walked back to sit in the lounge car and eat our snacks. This was my favorite part of the trip for sure. It was nice and open with great windows in there. Boston didn't want anything to eat, just wanted a teaDallas wanted his new favorite, Rice Krispies, and ate them all! Then the boys and I went to explore a little more while Nena and Asher sat in the lounge car. We went to see the sleeper car and the maid was making a bed and asked the boys if they wanted to help. They just laughed and ran down the hall. We had seen the conductor in the hall on the phone and he had said hi but then while walking a little further he saw us as he was sitting in one of the sleeper rooms doing some paperwork. He asked if it was the boys first time on a train and then invited us into the sleeping room to check it out. He was so great to show us it all and where everyone sleeps. Then he asked to take a picture with the boys and who wanted to wear his hat. Dallas was very quick to answer, "yes!" They just LOVED it! Defiantly a highlight. They were walking on clouds back to the lounge car. Boston was looking and looking for Tampa and so excited when we got there. Papa was there waiting for us when we got off the train. Then we headed to find the Gasparilla Pirate Ship and Papa sure enough found it for us! Wow, a real live pirate ship! A train and pirate ship all in one day...the boys were grinning ear to ear!!! They just couldn't get enough of the ship. We weren't able to get on it but looking was good enough. They examined it and looked for everything, steering wheel, plank to walk on, ropes, cabin, everything! Looking forward to coming back to the parade next year. Daddy already has it on our calendar.

We headed home, stopped by a fruit and veggie stand, had some great dinner at Bob Evans (all 3 of the boys ate every single bit of their food!), got home and headed to bed. What a great day. Thank you, thank you, thank you to my parents for all they did for us today. It was an amazingly fun day!

Very productive day at the house

My mom came over this morning to help Sean paint our big bedroom accent wall dark brown to match our new comforter. What was supposed to be a 1 hour job turned into a day of productivity and hard work! Sean was on the phone with is boss so while we were waiting we decided to try and clean out the dryer vent (for months I've been having to run the dryer 3 full cycles to get 1 load dry...as you can imagine laundry has been a never ending task because of this!) Then Sean got off the phone and they decided to go cut down the tree limbs hanging on our house and then ended up cutting a BUNCH of limbs off to make it not so lopsided. What a pile of limbs we have now! LOL Then my dad showed up and we decided to tackle the dryer vent head on. Sean was in the attic, the roof and all over working to fix it. And after several trips to Lowes and Home Depot they had all the parts and my dryer is now working efficiently!!! Thanks Sean and Dad!! Sean also picked up some more mulch for me and we got that all spread out. The biggest project was the garage. In the midst of the dryer vent project my mom and I started cleaning out and throwing away a ton of stuff in the garage. I've always been able to park my car in the garage but a few months ago when we laid the new floors in the office the piano and a bunch more stuff was "temporally" stored in the garage. Well the car hasn't been in ever since. So...I'm clearing it out. HEY ANYONE THAT WANTS A FREE PIANO CALL ME IMMEDIATELY.

So after all that my mom headed in the bedroom to paint the wall, the original project of the day, while Sean finished repairing the vent. The wall looks great and I'll have to post some pictures later. Right now I'm so exhausted I can hardly think straight. But ya to all that we accomplished today! Thanks to Sean, Mom and Dad for all their hard work!!!

1st sonogram

Today I had a sonogram because I requested to have a more accurate due date since I have 38 day cycles instead of 28. Hopefully this time the baby won't be so "late" according to the doctors calculations. But when I went in to have the sonogram it was still too early. The only thing they could see was the gestational sac, no embryo yet. The boys were SO disappointed. I couldn't believe how excited they were to get to see the baby in my belly. It's really fun to watch their excitement this time around since they are older. But I will have to come back in in 4 weeks to have another sonogram and they will probably be in school and miss it. Bummer. But she did measure the gestational sac and I'm measuring 4 weeks and 6 days (which is already about 1 week off of the due date they already gave me.) So another month before I really have a more accurate due date. But knowing me, it will probably be in April.

Side note...I can't believe how fast my pants are getting tight! My mom was telling me her's did that will all her pregnancies. I seriously look like I'm already a few months pregnant!

Asher and his new things

First his hand eye coordination is amazing! He eats with a spoon and fork unbelievably! Seriously, I've never seen anything like it. And he has been for a while. He also loves to find little things that he can put in and out of. For example: today he found this little bubble blower that was out of bubbles and for about 30 minutes he would just put it in and out. I have a hard enough time doing it with that tiny hole, but it was no problem for him. And he throws a ball so great! He even tries to kick it like soccer. He doesn't miss a beat in this house.



Today he picked up one of the boys swords and started to try and sword fight with me. So Boston came running wanting to play. It was so cute! Guess he's been watching his brothers a lot. Asher the master sword fighter.

Before and After of the house and more

I took the boys by Boston's school this morning to take his immunization records and I'm oh so excited about him going to school there. I just LOVE this school! Ya Ya Ya! Then I took the boys by the Winter Garden Library. We have never been to this library, we have been to 4 other libraries in town but somehow never came to this one. Wow, I think this is where we will come from now on. It's so nice and well organized and I love the kids area. The boys were especially excited that they had a puppet show stage. And we got so many book and movies to last us for a while! Boys didn't do so great listening at the library and were very repentfull after mom was so disappointed and embarresed by their behavior. The rest of the day they were on their BEST behavior. Proud of them for stepping up and acting the way they are expected to.

My mom then met me at my house and we went to work outside while the littlest guy took a nap. We got so much done today! I still need to post pics from the front of the house but forgot to take a pic of the after today...So here is some of the results of my hard work, sweet and exhaustion. Thanks mom for your help today!

Power out

Tonight as I was cooking dinner the power went out. It was one heck of a storm (more than 2 inches fell with lots of thunder and lightening.) I LOVE storms like this, especially when the power goes out. It's so fun and exciting and I'm so glad the boys think so too. So dinner was put on hold and we went searching for flashlights. But because the boys LOVE flashlights all but one of them was either missing or broken from them playing with them. But I had stashed away two little caribeaner ones for the boys and they loved that! Got some candles lite and we had a blast. I grabbed the camera and we all made scary, silly faces and loved looking at them on the camera. It was out 45 minutes and it was so much fun! I think we were all a little sad when it came back on. Funny thing was that Boston said, "I wonder when the power will come back on?" and just then it did! So back to normal life, cooking dinner, cleanup, bath and bedtime. Bring on the storms and some unexpected fun!!!

1st Doctor's Appt

Well, actually it was with the nurse. But the head nurse, Judy, in the office I go to was out sick today and I really missed getting to see her. She's been there to start me off through all my pregnancies. Oh well. But everyone in the office was shocked, excited and happy when I walked through the doors and they realized it wasn't for my annual appt. The nurse gave me a due date of March 19, 2009, but I told her I really thought they are wrong on the date since they figure it on a 28 day cycle and mine is 38. So she's sending me in for an ultrasound on Friday for a more accurate date. Hopefully this will help like it did with Dallas and the baby won't be "late" like Boston and Asher were. I'm already praying that I won't have to be induced! Seems like everyone on the planet is pulling for a girl. LOL Of course Sean and I wouldn't have even tried unless we were totally happy with it being a boy too. (But the good Lord knows the desire of my heart for a little pink to balance out all the testosterones in this house! At least someone else who can pee IN the toilet...LOL)

So looks like it might be another March baby like Boston. At least the majority of my clothes were bought during his pregnancy and will go well with the seasons. And I might have to bring out the maternity clothes sooner than usual. My shorts that were falling off of me if I didn't wear a belt are now fitting a little snug. Wow. I'm just 4 weeks...how can that be! Guess my body is going into pregnant mode at mock 3 (or 4 I should say) since it's done it 3 times before!

Top 10 signs I'm pregnant

Top 10 signs I should have known I was pregnant:



1. Restless Leg Syndrome is BACK!!

2. Craving mashed potatoes (a typical craving for me when pregnant)

3. Craving spicey food (especially jalepeano cheese...yummy! And never wanted this before!)

4. Falling asleep at 8pm and sleeping until 8am the next day

5. Peeing in the middle of the night a few times

6. Stomach cramps

7. My nose smells things like I'm some kind of superhero...this can be a good AND bad thing!

8. The cat wanting to be right near me (she only wants to be near me when I'm pregnant...usually a tell tell sign I'm pregnant)

9. Dreams that I'm pregnant

10. NESTING!!!!!



Also an added note...with all three other pregnanies I LOATHED the smell of Chinese food, which killed Sean since he loves it so much. This month I have been CRAVING IT! Funny...so maybe with the change in spicey and Chinese food cravings it's a girl? We'll have a LONG wait to see!!!

I'M PREGNANT!!!!

Yes you read that right! We will be adding to our family to make us a family of 6! Crazy and exciting all in one. We found out Sunday morning and I made cupcakes to take over to our parents to announce the exciting news. First I went to take the kids swimming at my parents and Boston ran up to my mom and said, "mommy has a baby in her belly!" My mom replied, "Does Mommy know that?" I said, "Oh yes it's true." Then we went to cousin Laurie's house to celebrate Aunt Nancy's b-day and Boston ran through the house announcing, "mommy has a baby in her belly!" But in the midst of all the people the only ones that actually heard it were Aunt Nancy and Sean's mom. They looked at me and I said, "Yes!"

I have been taking tests all week and they have been showing very very very faint second line. You had to look close to see, so Sunday morning I was so excited when it was much darker. Ya!! I think all Sean and I have to do is decide we want to try again and WHAM it's done! What a blessing! I have my doctors appt today with the nurse and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone in the office again. I think the baby will be due end of March beginning of April, but knowing me it will be mid April (they seem to cook extra long in my oven!)

So here we go...4 kids...amazing! God is good!

Painting update

The house is coming along really good. Painted all day Monday with mom, dad, Dale and Pat. It was a very long and productive day on Monday. I, myself, painted the garage door, last coat on front door (finally!), bench and two pots for the plants. Most of the front is almost done. Then yesterday I got the lights and the rest of the bench done along with some spackling (first time doing that!). I can't thank my parents and Sean's parents enough for all the help and hard work. It's coming along so great!!! I'll have to post a picture of the front so far. Of course we have 3 more side, but we will get there. All I know is that I'm younger than them and I'm sore! And boy has it been hot. Thankfully the rain held off on Monday and most of Tuesday so that's how we got so much done. Ya for a newly painted beautiful house!

Family Sunday

Sean had to work this morning to I skipped church and took the boys over to may parents to swim. Asher napped, the boys swam with my mom (thanks mom!), and I worked on taxes. Ya! Got a lot done.

Then we met daddy at home and headed to cousin Laurie's house to celebrate Aunt Nancy's b-day. The boys enjoyed playing with their cousin Ellie. Ellie loves Asher and prays for him everynight. I think if she could carry him around the house and love on him she would all day. So sweet!

All the kids playing

Ellie and Dallas in the hammock
Playdough with great grandma Blanche

Kids Theatre, Painting, and Double Date

This morning I took the boys (along with my mom) to the free event Orlando Rep Theatre was putting on for kids. We had such a great time! My friend Tina also came with her mom and two little girls and it was fun going around from station to station. I even got to see an old college theatre alumni friend Mareeko. I was very impressed with it and how much they had to offer the kids. The boys had a blast and it was fun way to spend the morning. My mom was a trooper wheeling Asher around and entertaining him so I could play with the big boys. Then Tina's mom got there and they sat together with the babies in the shade.

Instrument petting zoo...Boston and Dallas love violins and were so excited to hold and play a REAL one!

Asher in his free Target hat from the event

Dallas in the mask he made
Boston's mask
Drumming with Ella
Their 1st cotton candy. They didn't finish it all but were so excited about getting it, and especially excited that they got their own and didn't have to share like some other kids were

Making candy! Yum

Free balloons: the boys got swords and a belt to hold it

After we got home Dale and Pat came over to do some more painting so Pat helped with watching the boys and I painted with Dale. I pressure washed some of the house and put another coat of paint on the front door, also painting the frame the same color after Tico's suggestion...so much better! Ah, the house is really looking great!! And I love painting!!!!

Then Dale and Pat watched the kids while Sean and I went out to dinner with our old friend Robbie and Kathleen (wish I had taken a picture of us...of course there's not telling what Robbie and Sean would be doing in the picture! You have to separate the two of them!) Sean met Robbie and Kathleen while he was finishing up college after we got married. We have been friends ever since, but just don't get to see each other as often as we used to. But it was nice to catch up and laugh and laugh and laugh! Good times Riddles!