Twice the Blessing

Please excuse that I am a little behind in this post. As most of you reading this are aware, my baby sister is pregnant with twins. I had the honor of hosting her baby shower the last weekend in March. We had a really great time, played a couple of fun games and most important she got lots of nice presents. A few pictures from our day are below.

Routine Stuff...

Below is the story of how I started my day yesterday and is an average morning for me. For those of you that are mothers perhaps you can relate... It's 5:45 I wake up to the alarm, after turning it off I hobble my way (still half asleep) to the kitchen to put a pot on to boil the water for Kendall's formula. Then while I am waiting on the water I gather up all the kids bookbags, and remove papers from the previous day, while signing behavior reports (for the smaller ones), I then repack the bookbags and get Cathy's soccer bag packed as she has a game after school. By this time the water is boiling so I set it over to cool. I then make Kendall's bottles for daycare, being sure to write her name and the date on each one.

Next I hear Kendall awaken so up the stairs I go to get her. She is standing in her crib and greets me with a smile and kiss as I pick her up, for a brief moment all is right in the world. We go back downstairs together were I get her dressed for the day and fix her morning bottle. I then place her in her seat and I hop in the shower. I finish my shower and get Kendall then we make our way back upstairs to wake up the other kids. I start by waking up Cathy, I lay her uniform out for her on the foot of her bed and then proceed to the boys room where my fun always begins ;) I get their uniforms for them and help Cody get dressed, not because he needs my help, but because it is MUCH faster than waiting on him to decide he is ready to get up. The boys and I then go to the bathroom passing Cathy's room where I have to remind her again that it is time to get up and get ready for school. I brush both the boys hair and help them with their teeth then back downstairs we go, time to fix breakfast.

I set Kendall on the floor where her brothers begin to fight over who is going to play with her, then go to the pantry and ask the boys what they would like. "Poptarts" I hear in reply, so I place them in the toaster and get their drinks. By this time Cathy has made her way down stairs, but only after me yelling to her upstairs once again that it is time to get ready. I prepare Cat's breakfast as well and have them all sitting at the table. I then make Kendall's formula and fix her cereal. I had just started feeding her the cereal when Cat finishes eating her breakfast. Yes, I think to myself, Cat can finish feeding her and I may actually get makeup on this morning. So I head to my bathroom to get ready and leave the boys at the table eating and Cat feeding Kendall.

As I return to the kitchen (after hearing lots of fighting) to tell everyone it is time to get their shoes on I see Cody sitting in the corner and part of his poptart on the floor. When I asked him why he threw his poptart on the floor, he told me that "Colin farted on it". As I am buckling Kendall in her carseat and making sure they all have shoes and bookbags I ask Cody how his brother was able to fart on his poptart, he never did tell me and Colin was laughing saying that Cody was not telling the truth. So the poptart that got farted on made its way to the trash and we made it out the door. Long story short I never know what to expet when I get up in the morning, but I know there will never be a dull moment.

On the Edge

It was the middle of the night and I was sound asleep when suddenly I heard someone calling me. It sounded as if it was coming from far away, I asked myself "am I dreaming" then realize that I was not, it was my four year old beckoning me from his room upstairs.

I rushed up there to check and see if he was okay, and found him sitting on the floor beside his bed. That is when I had to laugh. He had fallen out of his bed and wanted me to help him back and tuck him in.

The reason this was so funny to me is;
1) I tell Cody everynight that he is sleeping too close to the edge and is going to fall off
2) This is not the first time he has done this

Maybe tonight when I suggest once again that he move to the middle of the bed he will listen ;)

Slippery Subject

Okay, so today was Cathy's induction into the Middle School Chapter of the National Honor Society. Last night we decided together what dress she was going to wear, no problems there... She woke up this morning and went to get dressed when I told her to put on a slip. To say that she objected to my request would be putting it mildly. She had a bit of a fit "I do not need a slip", "I am going to look stupid", all of this with tears wailing up in her eyes over a slip, a slip that nobody was going to see.

After some bickering back and forth between the two of us, and me trying to explain to her (which let me add here a slip is not a new concept to her or in our house) that anytime a lady of any age wears a dress a slip is appropriate, she proceeded to get dressed slip and all then pouted the rest of the morning, especially upon me telling her that she needed to wear her sweater as it was cool out this morning. But all that being said, it was a really nice ceremony and her daddy and I are SO VERY PROUD of her!

Busy, Busy...

My life has been a whirlwind as of late. I have not posted to much in a while but have had a lot going on both at home and work. So below is a brief update...

Cathy- So much to say, her basketball team went undefeated on the season and through the playoffs(two seasons in a row now) and won their division championship. She is doing wonderfully at school and is being inducted into the Middle School Honor Society this Thursday. She has a big decision coming up soon as both soccer and softball are in the spring, and in middle school she is only allowed to play one or the other so she will have to choose as tryouts begin in a week or two.... As always she is a wonderful help to me where Kendall is concerned, she makes me proud everyday to be her mother.

Colin- He just lost another tooth, he now has lost both front top teeth, so he has a really cute smile at the moment ;) He is doing awesome riding his new bike that he got from Santa. That is the one thing I admire most about my son. He does not give up, he will keep trying until he gets it and not only until he gets it, but until he perfects it. He is doing so good at school as well and is still and I think always will be mama's boy.

Cody- Hmm, what new and exciting can I tell you about Cody? He is growing up so fast sometimes we forget that he is only 4 years old. He is doing really well with his writing and he loves to go to school and play with his best friend Evan. Cody is definitely the most stubborn Willoughby, but that can be a good thing, I don't have to worry about anyone pushing him around or making him do something he doesn't want to. He is very protective of his baby sister and she lights up whenever he plays with her.

Kendall- OMG, can you believe she is almost ten months old? I cant. She is very mobile now and she gets into everything. Last week she began pulling herself up and this morning I watched in awe as she held onto the side of Cody's bed and walked down the side to the toy she wanted. It wont be too long before she lets go and then the chasing will really begin. We have had a lot of trouble with her ears since we began daycare, I am praying that it will improve soon. All three of the older children ended up with ear tubes, but I would like to avoid that if we can.

Michael- Is doing well. He is looking forward to the spring and warmer weather. The yard at our new house is not near in the shape of our old lawn, so he is on a mission to get it there. The part of that he is not looking forward to is there is no sprinkler system here so we have to water with the hose which means going out and moving it every 15 minutes or so. Colin is going to play baseball for the first time this spring, so he is excited about working with him on that. Anything he can do active with the kids he enjoys.

Me- I am well. I believe the sickness the plagued or house over November, December and even into January has now passed. I had a wonderful birthday, my parents threw me a little party over the past weekend, complete with cake and presents which was really nice, and my mother in-law made me my favorite dinner and white chocolate cheesecake. I am really busy and backed up at work, but being busy is better than the opposite so I can take that. And at home, well you can imagine how busy I am once I get home from work, somebody always needs me for something and there is always something to do, but I love it, I mean I cant imagine what it will be like when they are all grown up and out of the house....

Choco-love...

It is that time of year again, and yes , "gasp" the numbers are in the correct order. Yesterday was my birthday and pictured above is my cake that Michael and the kids made for me. It is a chocolate cake, two layers, with strawbeery icing in the middle and chocolate on the outside :) I loved it, it is definately my favorite cake that I have ever gotten!

Giving

This past Sunday we celebrated Kendall's Baptism. It was such as joyous occassion. I was joking with Michael and told him that the first time Kendall was wearing a long white dress we were giving her to the Lord, but the next time we will be giving her away to some crazy man.

By the time service was over and we were taking pictures she had fallen asleep. She was so tired, and still trying to get over an ear infection. But she still truly looked like an angel in my arms.