Just Because

Just Because I am obsessed with taking pictures of my children and I LOVE my new Flip Cam, here are some pictures:)


Sweet smile. We have not seen that smile too much this week due to some congestion and some belly issues. We go to the pediatrician again next week and I will have lots of questions about food. It appears that Hope has a lot of the same belly/gas issues that Kyle did and could that mean that she too will have sensitivities to foods and/or allergies??

Hope showing off her cute clapping! All you have to do is say "yeah" and she starts grinning and clapping.

I love her crocs from her aunt Sylvia in Arkansas. We got these last year when she was born and they are newborn size, but they just now fit!

Hope and I worked on our pedicures today for our trip over Easter weekend. We are taking a quick trip to Ohio to visit some Amish communities and visit the NFL Hall of Fame! My boys are so excited!! We will be back in time to celebrate Easter here with family.

Here is a picture of Davey's itchy spots. They are much better today thanks to Prednisone, and he went back to school today. He had hot, itchy welps all over his body-even in his hair and around his eyes. Pitiful little guy.

I know I am obsessed with my Flip Cam, so here is a cute and very tiny video of Hope giggling with her brothers. I know I will always cherish the sweet way that Kyle talks to Hope and I just love capturing the interactions between my babes. Just a reminder on videos-go to the playlist music and hit pause so you can hear the video instead of the music.

Resurrection

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I totally dig this song. I also really need to let this song just sink into this brain full of daily stuff. It is Holy Week and I personally need a little resurrection. This week has been full of pesky daily grind stuff-I am personally annoyed because I want to be focusing on the amazing sacrifice that my Jesus offered up for my salvation and instead I am dealing with an itchy and painful rash on sweet Davey, waiting on plumbers to unclog the oopsie in the garbage disposal, and I am needing to get the car serviced before we can go on our little getaway to relax. (yes, I am aware that that last sentence was one of the longest sentences in the history of the world!)

Listen to this amazing song by this amazing artist and just take a moment to reflect this week in Jesus' life. On one Sunday the masses were yelling "Hosanna" and just a short week later, the same crowd was yelling "crucify". I still cannot stomach any movie depicting this week in His life. I know what He endured for us, but I just cannot face it. I feel so painfully inadequate that He would endure that rugged cross and that angry mob for ME.

Holy Week always brings such a range of emotions and thoughts for me. I admit it ranges from the painfully shallow as I put way too much energy into our Easter attire to magnificent wonder as I reflect on the fact that the tomb could not contain our Savior.

Enjoy this amazing song and bask in the glory of Jesus' sweet Resurrection during this Holy Week.

On just a side note, Nicol Sponberg lost her son to SIDS at 10 weeks of age. Her website is so uplifting and amazing.

http://www.gregandnicolsponberg.com/

Kyle Scores a Goal!!

New Toy!!

Bear with me as I play with my new toy-a flip cam ultraHD!! I am so excited about my new lightweight way to video the kiddos:) Tonight I practiced at the boys' soccer game and got this video of Kyle scoring a goal!! Go Thunder!! I am apologizing now for all the silly videos that will appear on my blog for the next month or so as I get used to this new camera:) David is still obsessed with watching his swimming video from a few weeks ago. He often asks to watch himself swim on youtube!!

Busy Weekend

We have had a fun weekend despite the cool temperatures. The boys have been begging to dye Easter eggs, so today after church we did three dozen!! The boys love doing this every year! Here is Kyle with his favorite egg:)

Serious concentration!! This year the boys really got into using that wax crayon to write things on their eggs before dunking them!

Teamwork!! David broke several eggs plunking them in the dye. Big brother Kyle is helping him:)

Despite the chilly temps it is Palm Sunday today. Because it is so cool and rainy, Hope looks more like Christmas today than Palm Sunday:) This outfit makes me giggle everytime I put it on her. My Mom bought this outfit when I was pregnant with David because her grandma intuition made her think that we were having a girl back then. Of course David did not need a girly outfit so my Mom tucked this away in her drawer. Several times she pulled it out to give as a baby shower present but just could not do it! I have no idea why she kept it because we were "done" after David with babies. Well, lo and behold along came Hope Madeline and it worked out perfectly that she could wear this 6-9 month outfit after all! This outfit is such a reminder to me that God's plan is perfect:)

The big news of the weekend was that David had his first Tball practice!! He is on the Marlins and Mr. Trey and Daddy are his coaches. The first practice went great and he was so good!!

Big hitter!!

Coach Daddy getting him ready to hit! Coaching is one of the best stress relievers for Mike. He loves coaching his boys and as of today he is either the head coach or assistant coach for FOUR teams-soccer, AAU basketball, Tball, and pitching machine. Sometimes it would be nice to sit with him during a game, but I can tell that he is in heaven out there on the field.

Catching the ball!

Our cute and tiny team! this team is for boys and girls ages 5-6. They are so little and enthusiastic!!:)

The other exciting happening this weekend was Kyle's first book club! I am so sad that I forgot to take any pictures, but it was so fun being in the moment with the kids, that I never grabbed the camera. Before the book club the kids were suppose to read the Magic Tree House Book-Tigers at Twilight. At first we played a game show game answering questions about the book. The teams were boys against girls!! Then we made jungle juice smoothies and had some other tiger inspired snacks. It was really a fun first club meeting and they have already chosen the next book. I LOVED just being around these cool kids and next month we will hopefully expand the club and have the kids invite friends. We are going to also move it to the meeting room at our library so more kids can come! The teacher in me loves this kind of thing and it accomplished the main goal of having these kids READ and have fun:)

Little Mess and other Randomness

This is what happens when a big boy leaves his chocolate Pop Tart on the couch where a cute girl can reach it!! I would have been horrified if my first child would have had chocolate this young, but by the third baby you grab the camera instead!!:) I also love her bed head!!! Such is such a precious little mess!! We love her to pieces:)

Life is going by so fast these days that I can hardly keep it all straight. Our evenings are spent at the ball field or at the pool for swimming lessons. I love this crazy pace, because my big boys are happily engaged in things they love.

Speaking of love, David and Hope loved their Music Together class the other day. The teacher did not sing with canned music, but all her songs were live with a GUITAR!! Dave was in heaven:) We loved her so much that we are rallying some friends here so she will come to our neighborhood instead of driving 30 minutes to class.

I also want to put a plug in for Dave Ramsey. Mike and I have totally bought hook, line, and sinker his Christian views on finances that we are trying to live out. We have been doing his plan since Kyle was a baby and it has strengthened our marriage (except for that unfortunate fight over a $12 shower curtain in the presence of my mother-in-law last summer-but thankfully that is something we both laugh about now!) Anyway, we still have a ways to go in terms of retirement savings and such, but we totally buy into his philosophy of "live like no one else now so later you can truly live like no one else." His plan is what intrigues us about the idea of downsizing our home and living even further below our means.

Also, I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed the book The Help by Kathryn Sockett. Go check out this amazing book-I was truly sad when it was over:)

I know I am full of randomness today, but I cannot wait until I can share the kids Easter pictures! TOO CUTE-even if David was scared to death of the baby chicks and Hope almost squeezed one to death. I love getting updated pictures of the kids and this time I ordered enough for all the extended family.

We are gearing up for Kyle's first book club this weekend. Kyle and I are starting a book club for several of his second grade friends. We are hosting it at our house and the book they chose was Magic Tree House-Tigers at Twilight. The idea came out of frustration at Kyle's disinterest in reading. I decided to pair friends, fun and reading into a book club to get my son excited to read!! I will post pictures after the first book club this Saturday. There will be 8 second graders in my house, so it should be FUN!

SPRING!!

We were so excited that the first day of Spring was so beautiful here!! We played outside all day long and it was wonderful:) Here is sweet girl outside playing in the grass.

We made an impromptu ball pit out of her halfway inflated baby pool and a big bag of balls we have. She loved it and David even jumped in and played with her.

My entrepreneur Kyle even set up a golf ball stand selling his golf balls! Unfortunately he set it up later in the day when most of the golfers had already come by. This child may have a head for business one day!

For more fun, we got out the moon bounce and all three enjoyed playing in it. Just not all at once or poor Hope would have been bounced out! Here is David slam dunking the ball.

It really is spring because things are growing in our flower bed! After the brutal winter we thought spring would never get here!

Hope in the moon bounce! That girl like to be active!

Wild man Dave! Saturday night Kyle went out to dinner and a movie with a friend and just the four of us went out to dinner. David enjoyed being the center of our attention:) After our yummy dinner out Mike and I drove around and "house hunted" for a bit. We have talked lately about downsizing our house so we can live mortgage-free! Dave Ramsey would be so proud of us, but all the houses I liked were more that what we owe on this one! Oh well, we can all dream and keep an eye out I guess:)

I had a wee bit of a meltdown over the weekend when I realized that Kyle and Mike go off to do so many sports together and I feel like I do not have as much in common with Kyle. He watches Sports Center and he and Mike talk about that all the time. Mike coaches everything he does so they have that to talk about and lately Mom has felt a little out of touch with her sports nut 8 year old. I was even so desperate to go outside and play football with him and I actually PUNTED the ball.

Kyle and I are super close and I am THRILLED that he and Mike are even closer, but lately I have just felt a shift in our relationship. This is just a reminder that my big boy is getting bigger each day and that I need to consciously meet all three of my children on their level to remain "in" their world. I would much rather watch Matt Lauer in the morning than ESPN, but if that gets me talking with Kyle on the latest sports news then so be it.

Kyle and I are starting and hosting a book club for some of his friends from second grade this weekend. I am thrilled because it will give us our "thing" to do together and it will get him to read!! The first book club gathering is this coming weekend! We are planning some fun things around the Magic Tree House book Tigers at Twilight!! Mike will watch David and Hope and I will get to spend a little time with two of my favorite things-my son and books! Speaking of books, you must read The Help by Kathryn Sockett if you have not already!:)

Let's Twist!

Tonight our local elementary school hosted a 1950's Sock Hop! It was soooo cute! We had this great plan to dress David up and slick back his hair, but I thought he would freak out. Come to find out he like being dressed up as a dude! Here he is above with one of his good friends from his class-are they not ADORABLE together??!! It makes me want to break out my Grease movie:)

Here he is on the way out of the door:)


Dancing with Hope!!

David made a new friend at the dance and here he is doing the Cha Cha slide with her! He rocked that song tonight:) (I guess all that practicing we did during the snow storms paid off!

Here is David and his friend Hailey again cuttin'a rug:) They were so cute together that I could hardly stand it:)

In the conga line with some other guys.

Dancing hard with another classmate, Tommy V. Look how high he is off of the ground:)

Slow dancing....

Dancing to the twist song.

David whispering something in Hailey's ear?? Who knows, but these two friends certainly had a fun time together. This event ended a very busy day for David-he also had a long day at school and bowling! He is sound asleep now!

Thunder Soccer

Tonight was the first game of the soccer season!! Kyle and David are both on the same team-Thunder!! It was so cute to see these boys out there together:) I loved it and I was so proud of both of them. Mike unfortunately had to miss due to a work meeting, but he can catch the next game!

Go David go!! We were so proud of him-he hustled all night and stayed with the ball:)

Kyle in the action:)

David refused to give me a high five, but he would give Mrs. Samantha one!

Here is David with one his teammates, Ally before the game. So cute!! I just was so amazed at how David hung in there and was aware at all times of what to do. This is another one of those times where David totally rises to the occasion and amazes us!! I thought Kyle would need to help him, but nope! David held his own and listened to coaches and did AWESOME!!

This afternoon before the game we took the kids to get Easter pictures taken. The photographer had LIVE baby chicks and lets just say it was interesting:) She was patient and so sweet with the kids and I think we got some great pictures! Hope loved that chick and wanted to pet that thing! David was scared of it, but wanted someone else to hold it. Life with kids is never dull!

Overdrive

I feel like life is in overdrive right now with our crazy, but fun schedules. We have so any sports going on that it is hard to keep track of what uniform belongs on which day. I love this crazy, ball field/swimming pool kind of fun! I work hard during the day to keep the clothes washed, dinner prepped, and the house under control because mostly our evenings are spent out and about. David has swimming lessons right now with soccer and of course his speech therapy. Praise God for Ashley who helps keep us organized and punctual for Davey's events. Kyle is involved in AAU basketball, soccer, baseball, and swimming right now.

I swore I would never be one of THOSE Moms-you know what I am talking about. Those moms are the ones that push their children and make them do EVERYTHING!! Yes, my children do a lot right now, but it is all their choice and frankly they are loving every minute of it. For Davey, extra curricular stuff is so crucial for social opportunities. I feel that it is so important to let them try everything now while they are young because tough choices will have to come down the road. So for now, we are out and about cheering on our boys in whatever they choose to participate in.

Mike and I are hanging on for the ride. His job is still in super gear, but hopefully things will calm down shortly with this crazy budget season. We are totally into American Idol this season and that is our down/couple time as we argue over who rocked and who did not. I have gotten back into scrapbooking and I have enjoyed organizing pictures and getting back into my creative outlet with that. I totally want to learn how to sew....but that will have to wait until sweet girl is not so Momma-oriented. (Translation-spoiled rotten to me!)

That is our life right now-digging American Idol, chasing after our active boys, loving on our sweet girl, and just soaking up every minute of this year. Tomorrow night is David's first EVER soccer game-stay tuned for pictures after the big game:)

Hope 9 Months!

I cannot believe that my baby is 9 months old! What a sweet precious girl you are-what are you up to these days?


You LOVE when someone is in your face playing, singing, and reading to you. You especially love the songs that we sing at the library. You have no interest in TV and are truly under my feet all day long now.

You are a fast crawler and you are pulling up to EVERYTHING these days. You will find little pieces of stuff with your busy, sweet fingers:) You are spoiled rotten to Mommy, but you love your Daddy and brothers to play with you.

You are still nursing several times a day, but we are transitioning you from baby food jars to big girl meals from the table. We are suffering with a few belly aches because of it, but we are learning what you like and what hurts your belly. You love your big girl straw sippy cup and you get so excited when you see me fill it up with water and juice:)

You are still in 6-12 month clothes, and we just moved you up to size 3 diapers. You weigh around 16 pounds. You are super social and nosy!! I have to have a quiet room to nurse you because you are nosy:)

This picture says it all-you are such a big peek-a-boo girl! You even took the rocking chair cushions to play while I was trying to take your pictures.


You love your bath and you LOVE swimming in the pool during David's swimming lessons. It baffles me how brave you are swimming, but you eagerly put your face in the water. Yesterday you put your head under the faucet while the bathtub was filling up. We call you our wild girl, because you are busy and active all day long!
We love you sweet girl and we have enjoyed every moment of the last nine months!

Little Things

Here is a video of David swimmingh solo (with the help of a noodle) for the first time ever!



Above is a video of David jumping in. But, you will see that he is a sneaky one and tried to pull one over on the teacher!:) Too cute! We are so proud!!



Another exciting thing this week has been that Hope has learned how to suck from a straw! Here she is with her big girl straw sippy cup! Yeah Hope!

As a parent it is truly little milestones and victories that make your day so awesome!! Mike and Kyle are on an adventure to Richmond and I will post more on that later:) Enjoy the cute videos!

Spring!

I love spring and it was so exciting that soccer season started yesterday:) This is another one of those rare and few seasons where both Kyle and David will be on the same team!! Their team is called Thunder and Mike is helping coach with two other super guys. It is a fun team, even if Kyle looks like the Jolly green giant out there!

Oh, this picture tenders my heart so. Kyle is full of drama these days with a wee bit of an attitude, but when it comes to David he is so sweet. Here they are in line to practice kicking and this picture says it all. He is protective of David and is really his biggest fan and coach!

Here is coach Mike (with the clipboard) doing some drills. Uggh-the field was so muddy because of all the melting snow. David did a great job in practice and we were so proud of him. He is excited because several of his classmates and friends are on the team!

Before soccer practice even Hope got outside to enjoy the beautiful weather. She loves chasing her brothers in her walker out on the driveway!

Sweet girl! She has felt a little punky this week with a little bit of a runny nose.

This was all fun and games until David got the bright idea to start playing bumper cars:)