Embarrassing?

"Madelynn, you need to put some shorts on so you don't show your panties"

"Why Mommy?"

"Because it's embarrassing to show your panties, and rude"

"Embarrassing? Cause people will run away screaming?"

I bust out laughing, and Madelynn goes on....

"Cause people will run away and go AAAAHHHHHH?"

LOL! She sure keeps me sane.....

Married 72 months

I treasure all our memories
and I feel so grateful too,
That I have been so lucky
to have shared them all with you.

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful and amazing Husband & still my Best Friend!

Thinking back to our first anniversary, we had so much fun sky diving. Then I think the next year was the wine tour package at the Gaylord Hotel (I think we bought our couch and bed for our new house too). Year 3 was spent at On the Border, then shopping to prepare for the birth of our first daughter: Madelynn. I was 8 months pregnant then, the empanadas and shrimp were so good! Year 4 we took a family trip to Myrtle Beach. We thought it was so tough traveling with 1 kid, haha! Year 5 we dropped off Maddie and 2 month old Baby Annie and rushed off to dinner at The Silver Fox, then to buy our new TV. Now we are at year 6. The plan: Eat at On the Border (currently at 7 months pregnant, I can't wait for the empanadas and shrimp) then buy our new kitchen faucet. A long way from skydiving our first year!

Wow- 2&1/2 kids later, I feel we are stronger than ever before! I am so blessed to have found a man that will put up with all my craziness- and still love me despite it. ;)

Never a good sign when your belly protrudes farther than your boobs......unless you're pregnant....

So this pregnancy has been so drastically different than my pregnancies with the girls. Besides it being a complete surprise, yadda, yadda, yadda..... I look so different with this one than with the girls. For this reason, I'm uncertain if I believe that this baby is a girl. Either this girl is going to be a complete tomboy, or this baby is a boy.

I need another sono techs opinion.
I get one in a month.
I can't wait a month.
Jake's making me wait a month.
It's hard.
I'm told patience builds character.
So I blog about it to help with the wait.

Differences in pregnancies:

Girls: I had a huge sweet tooth
This one: I love carrot and celery sticks

Girls: I gained weight fast from the beginning, and ended at +45 lbs each (might have something to do with that sweet tooth....)
This one: At 6 months I gained 4 lbs. Now at 7 months I've gained 8 lbs.

Girls: I jumped sizes in pants and jeans as my butt and hips got huge....almost elephant sized ;)
This one: I continue to go down sizes in pants and jeans as I fit into clothes I haven't worn since pre-Madelynn

Girls: No belly until about 5-6 months along
This one: Huge pokey belly at 3 months....accused of having twins/triplets many times

So funny tangent on the huge belly thing.... I was in Home Depot this week and the cashier was all:
Wow! You're about to deliver any day now!
No, I still have about 2 months left....
What?!?!?! No way! That baby's going to be HUGE!

Another tangent: I like huge babies! I hope all my babies are huge. It means they are really healthy, and I don't have to worry about them as much. Scrawny babies you have to worry about....are they eating enough?....Will the dog knock them over and they will be damaged forever?.....Are they sleeping too much? Big babies you can just not worry about.....they are of a tougher breed.

So in conclusion of my long discombobulated rant.....how can I talk Jake into letting me get a 3D/4D sonogram soon? ;P

Blogger Bandwagon

So I've fallen off the blogger bandwagon. I've been thinking of all sorts of things to blog about: road tripping with kids, Annie's Birthday, etc.... I just have been feeling so melancholy about writing it. I love to write, but is it a waste of my time? It's hard finding a balance. I don't want to keep pushing my kids off while I blog, but it's nice to have time to myself sometimes too; blogging is a way I can kinda 'get away' for a short while. I guess finding that balance between being 'me' and being 'mommy' is a life long struggle. When I'm at work, I always feel like 'yeah, I could head that committee!' and 'Sure, I could do an inservice on that!' But then when I get home, I'm like 'thank goodness, I didn't volunteer for more time at work, home is where I belong...' Then I go to work again, and the cycle starts all over.... This even spreads to vacations. I would love to go parasailing, and rent dune buggies on the beach; or take a quick 6hr drive to Paris while in Europe. But I have to think of the kids and what they will enjoy. It helps to think that one day Jake and I will have all our kids in college and then we can enjoy these activities once again. We'll be the coolest old fogies around!

New Song I Like

I decided I like this song.....but not sure why....

Burned Biscuits

Thought this was a good lesson I needed to be reminded of....




When I was a kid, my mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work.



On that evening so long ago, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my mom and ask me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that biscuit and eat every bite!

When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my mom apologize to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I'll never forget what he said: "Honey, I love burned biscuits."

Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, "Your Momma put in a hard day at work today and she's real tired. And besides - a little burnt biscuit never hurt anyone!"

You know, life is full of imperfect things.....and imperfect people. I'm not the best at hardly anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else.What I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each others' faults - and choosing to celebrate each others' differences - is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.

And that's my prayer for you today. That you will learn to take the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of your life and lay them at the feet of God. Because in the end, He's the only One who will be able to give you a relationship where a burnt biscuit isn't a deal- breaker!

We could extend this to any relationship. In fact, understanding is the basis of any relationship, be it a husband-wife or parent-child or friendship!

"Don't put the key to your happiness in someone else's pocket - keep it in your own."

God Bless You.... Now, and Always....

Kids Update

Some cute things Annie's been doing lately:
- She tries to put all shoes on her feet
- She loves stuffed animals and all things soft
- She'll be playing, then come give me a hug before crawling off to play again
- She's started saying 'oof, oof!' when she sees a dog, then sticks out her tongue and pants like a dog. She says 'lia!' for Goliath. She loves to follow Goliath around trying to pet him (in that slapping the rear baby way)
- When she falls, she gets up and says "OK!"
- She's getting her top front tooth and top side tooth in
- She's been signing 'more' when Madelynn signs it

Madelynn is also learning more and more every day. She's really into big words lately. Some of her more favorite ones: Horrible, Comfortable, Delicious, just to name a few. She will say a word 20 times when she first learns it to try it out in different sentences. She is really into craft projects and playing dress-up and make believe. I absolutely love her imagination!

So we had to take Madelynn to the ER on Wednesday night. Her left leg suddenly started hurting Tues. night (she refused to walk on it) and then at noon she started running a 103 temp. When we went to the Pedi. she said she thought it was the hip joint hurting and needed xrays and lab draws. So we go to Medical City ER and Madelynn temp was 103.9 when we arrived. After about 5 hours of waiting (tests only took about 1 hour) they said everything looked good and was probably just a virus which can cause inflammation of the hip joint. So Motrin and rest was all that was in order (and here's your $200 bill for that...) So the next morning she was feeling great and walking great (of course.) Until.......she started throwing up that night and running another 103 temp. So after getting her some clear liquids and getting her able to keep medicine down, her temp finally went down and she seemed to have a good night sleeping. This morning she's back at 101 temp. and Tylenol seems to work better at keeping it down so far.....we'll see as the day goes on. I really hope she doesn't pass this nasty virus on to anyone else in our family.

Well, that's about all of the update for now. I'm excited Maddie starts art class next week, then music class in July. We're thinking possibly swimming and soccer in the fall. Should be fun! More updates later...