Birthday Bash

I can hardly believe that is has been five years since Cody was born, but is has... he turned five years old on July 14th. To celebrate we had a pool party with family and friends and even had my cousin and her family (who live out of state now) there as she was home visting. Cody had lots of fun and got lots of cool presents. As you will see below in the pictures, any kind of super-hero toy is always a big hit!

Kendall got in on the fun of presents

Granny Betty and my nephews

opening presents

Green Lantern was a big hit

Cody and his friend Evan

Green Lantern is blowing out Cody's candles

look it's Finn McMissile

Silver Fox

Okay, so the other day after I got home from work the kids and I decided we would play a game. Each one of the kids had their respective turns as Mama's teamate. When it was my oldest turn to be on my team she came and sat down beside me.

After a moment or two I hear "Mama, you have silver in your hair" to which I looked at her and said..."Yes baby, I know I have grey hair thank you for pointing it out." She then said "No Mama, it is not grey it is silver and it is so pretty, it is shiny." To which I replied "Thank you sweetie, but I really dont want pretty grey hair at 32 years old." When once again she said to me "But it is not grey, it is silver and it is pretty.", "I think it looks cool."

And what could I say to that....

Summer Reading

I cannot believe we are already at the end of June. It feels like the kids just got out for summer break. Over the summer Cathy has "summer reading" that is required as part of her first nine weeks English grade for next year. She has a list of books to choose from and must read two of them then take the associated AR test. Now this is the second time we have had to worry about AR testing over the summer. At her school summer reading was not required until middle school, so the first year you had to worry about it was the summer leaving fifth grade going to sixth.

Here comes the good news... they changed that and this year every student entering third grade and above has required summer reading. What does this mean for me? That Colin now has the same requirements for summer reading as his older sister (different list of course). So at lunch today I head out to the library to get the first book Cat wants to read, which of course they do not have. Here is hoping her school library will have it. However her school library is only open for testing and book rental two days a week, and only once a week after 2pm. So why am I writing about this you ask, well it is to vent and say, couldn't they make it a little easier for us working parents?

Photos

You might have noticed that I have new pictures up. We recently had new family photos made and I have to say a big Thank You to Stacy Davis who was our photographer and helped capture some beautiful pictures if I do say so myself ;) For any of you that live in our area and are interested, her website is below

www.stacydavisphotography.com

Busy Bee

With all things going on and summer time here I have gotten really behind in my blogging, but I would like to catch up on a couple of really exciting things. First I am the proud Aunt to two beautiful little boys. Vance and Dean arrived on April 26th, 2011 and I am happy to say they are both doing wonderful and growing like weeds.

Second we celebrated Kendall's first birthday. I can hardly believe it has already been a year, time really does pass too quickly, below area few pictures from her special day. I will add that she really enjoyed her cake...

Daddy...

Today is a day when we celebrate father's. I would like to take a moment and write about mine. There are so many fun memories that I could tell you about from days when I was really small, just sitting on daddy's lap or when we would go get a "grab bag" after school to as I got older learning to drive a car and the many memories of us and the horses going on trail rides or getting ready for the horse shows, but instead I think I would like to talk about what I learned from my daddy.

The lessons he taught me that I hold close to my heart. Lessons I hope to pass down to my children. He taught me that if I was going to do something to always strive to do my best, the importance of keeping my word, honesty and being true to myself. Most of all the strong sense of family he instilled in me, knowing that my family would always be there for me no matter what.

So it is on this day that I would like to tell him thank you, thank you for all the fun times we have had, for all the fun times we have ahead of us and for helping make me the woman I am today, one I hope makes you proud.

Iron Will

I will start this post by saying I am in know way an expert at being a mother. While it is true that I have four children and have learned a lot it is an adventure were I continue to learn and grow daily.


With Kendall being a year old now I decided it was time to transition from cup to bottle. My plan was to switch her cold turkey, the same way I have done it with all three of my older children. From my previous experiences I knew that although she may pitch a fit, she would get over it and when she got thirsty she would drink from the cup. Below is her opinion of said transition....

Three days in she still is throwing a fit at every feeding, and while she does drink from her cup it is after much protest. There have been many times over this past weekend were I wanted to give in and just give her the bottle back. But I know better than that, and this to shall pass.