My New year

What I am most grateful for this year:

The trips we took! we went to Stone Mountain, Ga (camping), Atlanta, South Carolina, Savannah, Sebastian Inlet (camping) Jacksonville, Disney World a couple of times, the beach many, many times, Sanibel Island, ans lots of little day trips in our area. We are so blessed to be able to provide these trips/excursions to our kids. As i was growing up, we never went anywhere, only Jacksonville to visit family. John on the other hand took lots of family trips and has all the great photos to look back on. I love to travel and want to instill that into my kids as well. Maybe these year we will leave the country! I am so looking forward to taking a cruise and going to Costa Rica someday soon! We also want to try Boston, San Antonio, back to Atlanta and SC, and maybe somewhere south in Florida. definitely going to do Disney of course and try to get more camping trips under our belt. There has been talk of selling our trailer and getting something bigger.

I am also thankful that everyone in our family has stayed so healthy! No flu of any kind, no serious issues what so ever! I am telling you, a healthy diet goes really far when it comes to having a good immune system. I am thankful that our children enjoy eating healthfully and making wise choices when it comes to food.

I am thankful for our finances and work this year. So many folks are out of work and out of money and out of homes. I know we are beyond blessed with John's job and all that it provides for us and I value our home so much. It is perfect for us right now and my children have a safe, warm home that they can feel loved in. What more could you ask for?

What I want to improve on this year:

I need to walk the dog more! he is getting so fat and I don't want him to be unhealthy so more walks for him!

Being more present for my parents.

Keeping our closets clean!

I hope all my readers (ha, I only have like 3!!) have a wonderful SAFE New Years and may you be blessed( and healthy) in the year to come! Much love to you and your families(((())))

Helping out in the church more.

Dress up

Do you see a problem?....is it okay to let my 21 month old boy play dress up with his sisters? I personally don't see a problem...besides the fact that he normally wears Snow white but he couldn't find it so today he was a fairy(with matching fairy shoes!) It was in fact really funny when he went under the play set, lifted his dress and peed across the grass (he was diaperless, obviously!) That had me laughing and then him laughing!

He still does favor baseball and wrestling with his big brother but big brother was playing football with the neighbors so Ian was stuck with all the girls :)

Oh, and the sisters were getting married hence the skirt hoop being used as veils!

I am alive and well

although I am not really sure that anyone ever checks this blog anymore! Oh well, life is busy and happy and everyone is healthy, that's all I could ask for.

Here are some of my updated pictures of the kids....I got a new Nikon for my birthday and I am trying so hard to get my settings right for the pictures and trying to remember which ones work the best so forgive the quality of some of these photos

Merry Christmas from beautiful Florida!

Ian is now 21 months old and his personality has just blossomed. He is still very much a crybaby! but his attention span has greatly improved and he gets along so well with his siblings. He idolizes his "JaJa" and his big sisters still mommy him and take care of him.

I celebrated my 32nd birthday with some wonderful friends and even gave myself my first hangover in years! Ugg, don't want to repeat that ever again!

Johnny also turned 8 in November and celebrated with a bowling party with his friends....all had a great time!

Ava Kai turned 4 in November and had a hello kitty party at the skating rink.....lots of 3 and 4 year olds and skating was quite the funny mix but she had a blast too!

Madeline has lost 6 teeth total now and is missing three at this moment....lots of little gaps going on now!

Christmas time at Meme and Papa's

I promise to make a better attempt to keep this updates, promise!

Pictures

Life stays so busy and time slips aways from me. On a show last week, an old man said that you wait your whole life for milestones....marriage, babies born, babies walking, graduation, grandchildren, and then next thing you know, all your milestones are gone and all you have are your memories....and not a lot of tomorrows to look forward too. Well, that kinda got me sad but gave me a jolt of the right now and LIVE. I try everyday to ingrain in my mind's eye all the details of today because they are slipping by so quickly.

My little man is 19 months old now and I love him to pieces. He is the sweetest, most loving baby I could have ever asked for.

Our cute craft pumpkin we did this year instead of a carving. (it's an owl)

Ian watching daddy come home from work in the front window

Ava's trike-a-thon at school for a fundraiser

And I do have 2 other kids! More pictures coming soon....

My three oldest are going around the house now with a bucket and three wash clothes cleaning the floors, table, glass doors, and walls....all with the same cloth....we have a dog and a cat and three heads of long hair.....there will be hair over all these surfaces! Do I let them, knowing that when they are done and not watching that I will have to go back and clean everything after them....yes, because they are working together, not fighting, and in the pursuit of a dollar. And who cares if my house is really clean or not, it never is anyways!

Today my baby boy turns 18 months old....and as I have learned in the past, this is precisely the age that the terrible twos start! Although I have never been one to call them terrible but others who observe do. This age is when they really learn they have a voice and a will and they learn to vocalize and protest, all in a step towards independence. Man, does my little boy love me! If he could, he would mesh his body into mine and we would become one. His favorite thing to do with me is for me to lay on the bed or floor, he crawls all over me and just presses his head into my body just trying to get as close as physically possible. Pure love. He is developing a strong attachment now to his dada and calls his name out all day even when John is not here. He wants John to put him down for his afternoon nap since his shoulder seems way more comfy than me. his nursing is down to naptime, bedtime, and once early in the morning and most days, he has been falling asleep for his nap with out needing me...it is all so bittersweet. My last nursling is growing out of his need for me. Madeline was the oldest to wean at 22 months and I have always said that I won't go over age two and I still hold to that. I see that his reliance on it now is for closeness and comfort and I certainly give him a lot of that outside of nursing. Anyways, I know our days of nursing are coming to a peaceful close and I am not as sad as I thought I would be, more excited about what the future holds for him and our family.

There are so many trips and places that we long to travel too that are better suited for not having a baby; plane trips, cruises, hikes, river trips, moutain climbing, etc. Especially because he does not sit still for anything and refuses to be held down! he is in constant motion at full speed! We do so much now but know that as he gets older, our experiences will expand to so much more and I can't wait!

September

The end of summer left the kids anxious to see their friends at school again and left me very excited to have my work load cut down by not having to entertain them ALL DAY LONG! Johnny and Madeline started on Tuesday and then Ava started school on Wednesday. She has been waiting so long for school and was so giddy with excitement, she couldn't stand it!

And you can never leave Ian out of anything! He has to be a part

Although he was pretty tired of pictures by this point! All that standing still had him frustrated

Madeline started first grade

And Johnny started second grade

And then Ava started preschool

And for some reason, Ian has become fascinated with water....wanting to play with it so bad, he jumped in as I turned around to get towels!

And our $5 purchase at a garage sale has worked out great for the girls to play in.....if I could only keep Ian OUT of it!

Madeline has now embarked on being 6 years old and since she has an obsession with dogs, she once again had a puppy themed party, the first one she had when she turned 4. This is the cake she picked out and my creative hubby made it!

We had a great birthday party for her at Lithia Springs, all the kids could cool off in the frigid waters while the adults sat under the canopy of trees enjoying soda and sandwiches.

Her most favorite present, a new pair of roller skates. She has become a skating fool and they are on her feet the entire time she is at home! We have been to the skating rink a few times and she has done so well and learned so quick! It is great to have finally found something she she likes doing!

Adults away....and Ian

We have some great friends who invited us down to Sanibel Island for the 2nd year in a row to stay in their timeshare on the beach...and this place is beautiful. We did take Ian and the others stayed with grandma for the weekend. Wow, was it so much easier with only one kid! I think he got a bit spoiled with no shared attention!

This was the view from the hammock hanging from the palm trees. ahhhhh, paradise! You can see the pathway to the ocean.

sunset on Captiva Island is THE place to be. The beached was packed and it was beautiful





and thank you to our friends for a relaxing, restful weekend. The weather was perfect, the food was delicious, and the company was fantastic!

Girls skate

During the summer (wish I would have known about it at the beginning of the summer!) the skating rink does tiny tots under age 6. They mostly play disney music which was pretty cool. The girls had a blast but man oh man were my arms sore from trying to hold them both up! Luckily, after the first half, they both wanted to go out on their own. Madeline did pretty well on the wood floor but still fell quite a bit. That girl refuses to ever give up so she just hopped right back up and kept going. Ava felt better going on the outside of the rink where it was all carpeted.

John's brother was nice enough to help me out with Ava. This was when we first got there and she couldn't keep her feet still!

Ava doing much better after she stayed on the carpet.

Madeline was so intent on doing it!

Madeline, cousin Lauren, cousin in law Taylor, Ava

Beach weekend

Every year John and I and his family go away for the weekend to celebrate his dad's birthday and our anniversary (which are 3 days apart). We use to always go to Disney in the beginning, but slowly graduated to going to the beach. Equal drive time, but being in a condo allows us to cook most meals in and have a ton more room. It has started with us just having Johnny and then between us and John's brother, we seem to have added a kid or two every year to the mix. This year there are 7 grandchildren, my 4 and then his brother has a 5 year old girl and almost 3 year old twins. Needless to say, this year was very LOUD in the condo with all tile floors and thin walls! Thank goodness our clan was in another condo in a different building! It was a great beach weekend with a ton of swimming, too much sand, and thankfully, no sunburns!

Madeline, Lauren, Sara holding Ryan, Ava, Dave, Ian, Johnny, Grandma holding Nick

Madeline

Ava

Johnny

Ian

The girls' hair was pretty gross from all the swimming in the beach and pool! madeline had the start of some dreads!

We always go down to John's Pass for ice cream! I wish we would have taken our glasses off!

some pictures to melt my heart

Sebastian Inlet-camping trip #4

Our fourth camping trip took us across the state to Sebastian Inlet which is world famous for great waves and an even better chance of being eaten by a shark! The campgrounds were small but somehow we managed to snag the last spot on the water (even as a last minute trip at that) The direction of our site allowed for the best sunsets, a short walk to the Atlantic ocean and a great fishing pier, and a short bike ride to a great park/picnic areas. We did have to get in the car and cross a bridge to get to the little jetty which was a lot safer to swim in than the ocean was. The ocean had a really strong undercurrant and I wouldn't let the kids go in at all.

setting up our site

There were zero waves inside this area. There were a ton of different types of crabs, lots of fish, and manatees! The kids were within feet of several! Out in the canal, we saw a bunch of dolphins jumping in the waves

sorry about the film quality=disposable camera!