Bippidy Boppity Boutique

I love Disney more than just about anything besides my family. We go ALL THE TIME! Nice to live so close by and get great discounts! Anyways, I have breeded that love into my children and now they ask me at least once a week when we are going back. The best I can do in these tough economic times is take them to Downtown Disney where they still enjoy all the sites, stores, and restaurants. Disney is just so magical and it gets into your blood I think!

Last year madeline went to Bippidy Boppity Boutique where they dress you up with hair, make up, nails etc to be a princess. They give you quite the royal treatment too. Anyways Madeline went there to celebrate her friend's birthday and talked non stop about it since. Ava has been wanting to do it too but you have to be three. SO, what do you think she got for her birthday? A whole day as a princess!

The grand entrance to the most decked out princess store EVER!

"Before" photo

Madeline getting her hair brushed. The poor "Fairy Godmother" had to have cringed when she saw how long Madeline's hair was!

Ava almost ready. She sat perfectly still for the whole thing!

Since it was her birthday, Ava got a special call from the real Fairy Godmother who also sang her Happy Birthday over the phone....Ava was just in awe


My 2 princesses after....they were the hottest stuff on this coast! You could just see the pride in themselves as they walked through Disney, how everyone looked at them and made comments....I hope they remember this day because I always will

John made Ava's cake and she LOVED it! He did a great job, thanks!

My sweet little 3 year old

Ava was my latest baby, somewhere between 6 and 9 days late. At the time, she was my longest labor, but also the easiest pregnancy and the most peaceful, actually enjoyable birth. If I could have had all my pregnancies and births go as hers, I would have 10 more kids! J/K! I literally went to the chiropractor and had a prenatal massage at least twice a week and was just always so happy, happy to be pregnant and nurtured and loved. I was in such a good place while pregnant with her.

Her birth was the one I had been seeking as a healing to my previous ones...hers was story book perfect. Her labor was 17 hours with only one push for her little body to be born, all 9 lbs 9oz of her. She was a surprise girl too! We did not find out the gender but we were both so sure we were having a boy. I was so shocked when I looked between her legs that I had to look again and everyone in the room laughed! She was welcomed into this world surrounded by our family and her big brother Johnny released her from my body as he cut her "rope".

Even though I did feel complete after having her, God spoke to me shortly after her birth and told me not to be done, that He had one more in store for me and that it would be a boy.

Ava was the baby who I just knew I was born to have. I had such an intense connection with her that I could sense her and only felt full and complete with her in my arms. It was like the moment I picked her up, I just knew I was whole. I really don' t know why it took my 3rd baby to feel that way but I am pretty sure it was the mind body soul connection that fully went into her pregnancy and birth. It was such a spiritual awakening that I finally felt alive


She has always been the happiest baby/girl and so easy going and easy to get along with. She rolls with the punches and takes everything in stride. She is every one's friend and never meets a stranger. It is so refreshing to have her after my first two were painfully shy introverts. She longs to be around people and involved in every activity. She is super smart but sometimes seems to lack basic commonsense! I tell John she has a lot of blond moments!


She is the one who looks the most like daddy and I see absolutely none of myself in her, nothing at all! She is so much smaller than the other two hence why she is called peanut! She is just gonna be a little petite blond thing! Look out boys, daddy knows how to shoot a gun!



Happy Birthday my sweet little peanut, my life is so much happier with you a part of it and you make me happy and strive to do better as a mom. You show me the positive in life and teach me more than you could ever know.

Keep on smiling peanut

note: sorry about the quality of the first pictures, they were scanned....and the dates on the last 3 photos are wrong, they were taken on 11/14/08

Happy 8 months, Bugga bugga

"Look at how big I am now!!"

My terribly tired teething boy :*(

20 things to remember

Twenty Things to Remember

1.Faith is the ability to not panic.

2. If you worry, you didn't pray. If you prayed, don't worry.

3. As a child of God, prayer is kinda like calling home every day.

4. Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.

5. When we get tangled up in our problems, be still. God wants us to be still so He can untangle the knot.

6. Do the math. Count your blessings.

7. God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts.

8. Dear God: I have a problem. It's me.

9. Silence is often misinterpreted, but never misquoted.

10. Laugh every day - it's like inner jogging.

11. The most important things in your home are the people.

12. Growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional. (Preach it!)

13. There is no key to happiness. The door is always open. Come on in.

14. A grudge is a heavy thing to carry. (Anger does more damage to the person who carries it than the person that it is poured on.)

15. He who dies with the most toys is still dead.

16. We do not remember days but moments. Life moves too fast so enjoy your precious moments.

17. Nothing is real to you until you experience it; otherwise it's just hearsay.

18. It's all right to sit on your pity pot every now and again. Just be sure to flush when you are done.

19. Surviving and living your life successfully requires courage. The goals and dreams you're seeking require courage and risk-taking. Learn from the turtle, it only makes progress when it sticks out its neck.

20. Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.



No matter the storm, when you are with God, there's always a rainbow waiting. Leave gentle fingerprints on the soul of another for the angels to read. I don't want to get to the end of my life and find thatI lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.

And because he is so cute

I figured since my last post was how much trouble Ian can get into, I would add some photos of how darn cute he is anyways!

The first time he pulled the fake tree down on himself he screamed in terror....now he does it because it draws a reaction.

" I am soooo about to get into trouble"

"Trying so hard to get that leaf so I can put it in my mouth, gag, then throw up so mommy can clean it and change my clothes again"


" See, I am cute"

what takes 30 minutes

It should take about 4 minutes to empty my dishwasher. I do it everyday (and HATE it) but get it done as quickly as possible to move on about my day. I like a clean kitchen....even if the rest of the house is a disaster, at least my kitchen is clean and my sink and countertops are empty.

Today while doing the dirty, Ian finally reached the dog/cat's water dish faster than me. He has been improving his speed everyday to get to it and you can even see how he takes off faster as he gets closer. Well, he dumped it(of course) and started patting it and playing. Luckily, the food dish was empty because he has tried that out as his first solid a couple of times already.

Easy enough....change him into dry clothes and diaper, carry on with the dishes as I leave him by the back door watching the 3 other whittles playing in the back yard. I kid you not, within 15 seconds of me leaving him, he darted across the livingroom towards the front door and I heard the sound of Ava's potty being flipped over (her plastic potty is by the front door because the kids' bathroom is dark, she can't reach the light yet, we hardly use the front door, and she likes how small her potty is anyways). The worst part about that sound was that she had just used it and had "poop in her heiny butt". UGH @@@@@ I got to him before he could grab hold of one of the, you know, pieces, but he was playing in a pee puddle. And of course nosey dog and cat both come to see what is going on and both have to sniff everything out, gross!

Needless to say, after a scrub down and floor clean up, it took me way to long to empty that dishwasher. Man, these boys are trouble. Ava and Madeline never cared about stuff like this, never put everything into their mouth and with Johnny I could watch him every minute because I had nothing else to do! There were no little toys at every corner of the house waiting to choke a baby, no dog to eat his food, no other kids to chase after. This IAN is hard work!

My firstborn....

...today turns 7. Seven years ago right now I was in a wretched induction for a baby that would be too big for my body if I carried him to term for 9 more days. Ha, ha.....his brother just born 7 months ago weighed almost 3 more pounds than he!

Johnny's birth changed me in more than one way....he made me a mother, he made me scared of watching the news for the first time for the effects of the world would have on him, he made me question doctors, he made me question why things were standard, he made me realize that babies do want to sleep with their mama when I was dead set against it, he made me fight for my and his right to breastfeed, he made me tired yet running toward the future, he made me realize that I was born to be a mother and I would do this again and again and again, he brought me and John to a closer level a lot faster than most couples, he made us strong, a family for the first time.

I owe so much to him for everything he has taught me, his siblings owe so much to him for the path he has created, for the births they have had, the better outcomes all of us have experienced, the joy we have witnessed. Seven years, man.

Johnny is so smart, so caring, the follower of all rules, the standard for safety, the protector of his siblings....his outbursts are loud and fast yet over quickly, his heart is so pure, good. His head is into all sports but his newfound love of baseball runs very deep inside him. He is all about fairness and some might call him the tattletell! He feels very deeply for others and their pain and their hurt. He is an honest person and an easy child to talk to with understanding.

He was THE hardest baby but has turned into the easiest child. Thank you Johnny for all that you have given me and our family and happy birthday baby boo.

Halloween

Not much time today to write out much but I wanted to add some of our Halloween/Pumpkin patch pictures from our week. The weather has been beautiful and very cold by Florida standards but we are loving it!