be Thankful #2

I think I have chose a great time to remind myself daily of the things I have to be thankful for , like many of us , I could sure spend a lot of time talking about all the things I wish I didn't have going on in my day to day life. I think this will be good for me .

Today I would like to tell you how thankful I am of my oldest son , he is only 6 , but just seeing how great of a person he is at 6. Makes my heart soar to think how wonderful of a young man I hope he becomes. He is seriously the most thoughtful , compassionate child ever. He will gladly put his wants and feelings aside for others , strangers included. He is a wonderful big brother , a sweet little brother. He loves to read , and everything about school. He was an awesome baseball player , he's played 3 seasons now. Ending his last season with 2 home runs and winning the " most improved" award in his age group. He gives 110% of himself into everything he tries. He was the baby we tried for , for 3 years, I couldn't have asked for a better gift. He did have to spend a few days in NICU for being born at 35weeks , but at 8lb6oz you really couldn't tell. He did great and came home with no complications about a week after his birth, and has just been a joy since. I am told every time I go to the school by many staff members and other teachers , how great of a child he is , I never know what to say. Saying " i know" sounds snotty , and I can't act surprised cause I agree :)

so i will leave you with some pictures of my great little guy.

1 month old :)

riding the mini bike with his grandma

his go to picture face

that face again

his regular face :)

and what he thinks of me always wanting to take his picture

Be Thankful #1

Since this is November , obviously as you know the month that contains Thanksgiving. I intend to spend each day posting what I am thankful for . There will be more than one thing to be thankful for daily I am certain of but I plan to just elaborate on one a day :)

November 1st 2012

 The day after Halloween, my house is a wreck, what time we've been home over the last 3 days was just short amounts of time but it was active the whole time we were here .No down time , much less time to clean. I sit here now taking a short break between cleaning while the baby sleeps , #3 is watching Scooby Doo and the older two are at school. I am warming up some cheesy potato soup for lunch and listening to the movie Alive , the one about the soccer team who's plane crashed and they were stuck in the snow filled mountains awaiting rescue. It is based on a true story , in the 70's I think. But watching it made me think , how thankful I am to just simply never have had to deal with the anxiety of being in a life or death situation. These days I am not dealing well with anxiety and often get terrible situations and scenarios stuck in my head that just spin around and stay on my mind... it's not that fun. So I am sure you just imagine the whole 2012 think is weighing pretty heavy. lol , but I just remind myself , how aggravated I will be if I was to lose track of what we are ( as a family) trying to accomplish , and then nothing happens and we've wasted all that time . so just keep on keeping on .

So my first thing I am thankful for is , how fortunate my family has been to have not had to be in a life or death situation.

Try and keep it simple

 If  blogging was like Facebook.. I would be simple put, THE BEST at it... true story.  Something is so daunting about sitting here , typing out a "blog post" without an interruption that without a doubt causes me to lose my train of thought. Facebook as addicting as it is , and I will be the first to admit.. I am addicted to Facebook , is really genius . You can share as little or as much as you want and quickly.. I sure wish I had thought of that..But .. I did not.

School is back in session , we now have a 5th grader and a 1st grader , they are doing excellent. I love our little Primary School. I hope our house hunting can keep us in this school zone until all 4 are completed through this school.

It is now 30 days until I am 30 years old. That is scary stuff, 30 years old , that's a lifetime. I can now say " I remember that , it was like 20 years ago " and mean it.  I have some big goals for my 30's . They are realistic I feel , But until I get them completed they will seem forever away. Believe it or not I actually have a paper list of these goals , I refer to it often. I started off with some very very simple goals , so I will feel motivated by my own success. I am not as motivated as I had hoped but I am sticking to it , wish me luck.

one goal , in no particular order , and if they were in an order it would be one of the lesser important ones. Is that I would actually LOVE to be able to knit something aside from little toys and hats. While I can follow a pattern something about taking on a whole pullover or sweater just kinda freaks me out..This wonderful pullover was knit by Knitting Pie and it is just simply awesome. I can not wait for the weather to cool down so this can be one of our go-to's . Check her out , she has amazing knits.

While not much has changed .

just go with the flow , in deeper water...

 So my last post announced our new expected addition.... and HE'S HERE ..

after a pregnancy that was SO different than my last 3 ,and about 2-3 weeks of early/slow labor ,a 4th cesarean that resulted in anemia and a spinal headache we were blessed with the littlest brother in our house , who was ironically also our biggest baby . Weighing in at 9lbs 9oz and 21 3/4 inches long , David Owen joined us on February 7th at 8:51am . He is just about perfect and everyone is adjusting very nicely .

Here are Big Sister and Biggest Brother , waiting my mom was great enough to bring them up to the hospital early in the morning so that they could meet their new littlest brother , this is them waiting.

  And here he is ,the littlest brother.

 Biggest brother loving him , he was SO excited to have been there and to be one of the first to hold him and see him . He's so in love with him .

  While another brother wasn't on the top of her list, she's in love with him , and probably the BEST big sister anywhere around.

  My mom, this makes her 9th grand child. Who was ironically 9lbs 9oz.

 Sweet baby Owen , one day old.

 Since his birth he's done lots - had his first bath at 3 weeks old in his Tummy Tub  he absolutely loved it

He has spent an afternoon outside enjoying some of the random 77 degree weather days we've had

so while I don't know what I am really doing with 4 kids , Softball for Big sister , and Baseball for the big brothers , in two different leagues, all starting in the next 2 weeks. While the Daddy of the house is still a workaholic and we are trying to buy a house and learn to live debt free.... we're having fun and just going with the flow even though it seems the water is getting deeper.

Just go with the flow..

So , Im here to start off again by apologizing for not posting as often as I had intended .. But no one is reading anyway. At least not regularly or following . 

But since my last post a lot has come into play. Big brother has started Kindy and is loving it ! , Big sister is rocking the 4th grade ,and is loving being involved with student council. And newest news is that Little brother will now be a big brother too ... so I guess Big brother gets bumped to Bigger brother .

   We are expecting baby #4 , by mid February . It's another BOY! we are thrilled , Big sister was hoping ,and a lot for a little sister , but no such luck.. She's come around to the idea a lot more here lately . 

So soon to be 4 kids, are we crazy? No. Are we financially wealthy? No, we could always use more money. Are we taking things as they come and cherishing every day with our beautiful kids? Yes, and we wouldn't have it any other way. 

This has been a great motivator to get on the ball with our plans to purchase a home. We are both sure we want to stay in the same school zone that we are in now. We love this little school and this side of town. We have been loosely following Dave Ramsey's plans for Financial Peace. It has brought us a long way in a short amount of time , But between now and the end of the year we are really cracking down and plan to pay of the 2 small debts we have only leaving my van to be paid off. In hopes that it will boost our score a few more points since they will be early pay offs and help us by lowering our debt/income ratio .. not to mention just saving us that much more money on a month to month basis.. 

So, hopefully I will have some fantastic news to post , good news Im hoping. As we purchase our first home.

seize the day

Myself and the kids took a week long trip to Michigan to visit my father.In mid June. It was the first time I had driven so far alone with the kids. I'll admit I was nervous but all went well . Extremely well .  The day we got there , we rested a little. The kids ran a muck with my dad and loving on his beagle , Jack. The next day was Big brother's birthday. The big 5 . So , I decided last minute to get up early and take the older two to Cedar Point.  This was his first time here. It was Big Sister's 3rd time , but first time she was tall enough to ride the "big" rides.. She was thrilled as well . 

here is my big guy on his big day :) this was taken about half way through the day , I was worried he would get too tired and our day would come to an end sooner than we had all hoped. But he held up great , there was just so much going on , i dont think he had time to get tired.

He really believed he was driving this truck although it was on a track lol

He was even nice enough to give his Big sister a ride

Then she wanted to drive the pink one herself

This one is special to me , I have pictures of my brother and I on these ride with our Grandmother about 15-17 years ago <3

and they even had bumper cars in his size.. he was in Heaven

He loved the snoopy areas , where the rides were his size. It really made him feel like a big kid since he had to be a passenger on other rides or sit out while we waited for his sister to ride .  It was a fantastic and very tiring day , especially after driving 11 hours to Michigan from Tennessee , then another 3 hour drive to Sandusky , and back to Michigan after 10 hours at the park.. It was a great day.