Memorial Weekend

Our original plan for Memorial weekend was to go on a little trip to Atlanta. Then, the stress and craziness of last week helped us decide that a weekend at home was what we needed and that was definitely a great idea! We have had a blast at home-we have gotten together with friends, visited with family and even got some stuff done around the house.

Our neighborhood pool opened this weekend and we got to go twice. The kids had a ball-there were lots of friends there for them to play with and Hope loved the water!

The diving board was the highlight for Kyle!

Hope was so happy in her float in the water. She is a definite water baby:)

On Memorial Day our town has a great parade and here are Mike and Hope watching it! My Mom got this dress for Hope for the parade and for the 4th of July:) Kyle says that we should salute her in this dress!

Kyle and Hope waiting for the parade! These two babes of mine look so similar!

Hope is not used to taking naps with big boys in the house, but my Mom helped us remedy that with this great noise maker. The white noise helps her nap and the boys can still play without us shushing them! (yes, she naps in our bed....) Speaking of our bed....the boys had a sleepover with my parents on Friday night so Mike and I could continue shopping for stuff for the house! We are finally getting everything bought for our remodel.

I love sweet moments like this. Thursday afternoon Kyle and I went to the library and picked out a bunch of books and videos. Here he is reading this cute book to David. I love these boys.

Saturday night we had friends over for a cookout. Here are Hope and Brady playing in the gazebo with their toys. They are so cute together!

Kyle's friend Caleb hung out with us Saturday and here the boys are sweating and resting from playing sports all afternoon. They are taking a hot dog break!

The moon bounce is always a favorite and here is David with Ally and Parker!

Before our friends came over Saturday night I had taken the kids to the pool while Mike went to the grocery store. David fell asleep in the deck chairs and slept through the first 30 minutes of the cookout!!

Kyle and Caleb. These two sports-nut kiddos played every sport we had in the house. They have fun together!

We also got to visit my grandparents at the lake this weekend and sweet Hope got to take her first boat ride. She loved the wind in her hair and did not even mind the life jacket!

The other fun thing we did this weekend was take some pictures of Hope for her birthday invitation. David helped me pose her and we got some cute pictures!!!

Tomorrow the boys are all back to work and school. Two more weeks of school and then we are done for the summer. I have lots to get done before they are home, but the next two weeks are also full of events at their school. Happy Memorial Day!

Happenings

Life is flying by so fast and furious these days that I have not been at the computer much lately. A friend and I have been walking furiously lately trying to improve our health and overall enoy this beautiful weather first thing in the morning. I am not sure if my physical health is improving as much as my mental health has been:) Love it!

There is much stress these days, but I am turning it ALL over to God and not fretting. (okay-easier said than done but I am trying). I am thankful for our God who is bigger than anything we have going on and I am thankful that we can call upon Him for strength.

We are in the middle of an unintentional house renovation AGAIN. I will spare you the pictures of our stuff all astray downstairs where we had a sink leak that mesed up stuff in a major way. We are on a tight time schedule to get it fixed due to our June company, but we tend to work better under pressure and we have an amazing friend that is helping us pick out what we need and he will be laying our new hardwood floors downstairs in our basement. Anyone who has been here to my house knows that I have NEVER ever liked the basement. It has depressed me with the dark paneling walls and brown carpet but I have loved the idea of having a place that my kids and friends can hang out and enjoy the Wii and playroom. Now hopefully the kids will still love being down here with their friends and I hopefully will be able to sit and enjoy being down here without needing an antidepressant! HA! I will post after pictures when we get it all done:)

We are starting to plan little Hope's birthday party and I cannot believe this sweet girl will turn one so soon. To say that we eat her up is an under statement and I just cannot wait for her party! Then right after hers we will be doing little Dave's and that will be super fun because this has been the first year that he has clearly chosen what he has wanted to do and who he wants to come. His list is mostly girls which cracks me up!!

Pray that we can get our home projects done before Mike's Mom's visit on June 18th. Last year she had to deal with a home renovation during her stay, and I know she is a good sport about it, but it would be nice to have the house semi-decent during her stay this year.

The kids are beyond excited for Memorial day weekend this year because the pool will be opening!! We had first thought about getting out of town and taking a breather, but they are so excited about the pool opening and the town parade that we are choosing to stay here instead.

Week Happenings

This time of year there are lots of fun things going on at the boys' school. On Friday Hope and I volunteered at Discovery Day which is a fun day devoted to science. There are lots of hands-on things to do around the school. Hope and I helped kindergarteners make necklaces that help them remember the things needed to help stuff grow such as water, sun, and dirt. Super fun!

The second graders got to do some cool things too. Here is Kyle playing a game where he tries to match the animal to its skin. Yucky but the kids had a ball!

Here is Dave digging for dinosaur fossils!

David with some of his classmates at my station!

Also this week I chaperoned a field trip with Kyle's class to Hungry Mother to do a critter crawl and a nature hike. Here is Kyle inspecting some of the critters under a microscope.

Is this snake real or fake?? You decide:) Clearly if I was this close for a picture you can probably guess that it is fake!

Kyle listening to Ranger Candace talk about non-native species in the park. We are so fortunate to have a state park in our own backyard and it is one of the favorite spots for field trips.

Kyle's class field trip ended at a Chinese restaurant to eat lunch. The classes studied China, so eating real chinese cuisine was a fun way to tie in that SOL.

This time of year is packed with such fun as the school year is winding down. The next few weeks are full of more end of the year events, Special Games, and class plays. After all the excitement of the next few weeks we will definitely be ready for the lazy days of summer:)

Reconnect

This is a random post just because life has been pretty wild and crazy the last week or so. Mike and I took a little two day trip with Hope this past weekend. It was AWESOME to be away with just our little girl and have some uninterrupted time to talk and just be with her. Kyle and David were happily with my parents and having a ball so it was all good.

We love being together as a family but our boys are a little umm, talkative, so good quality chats between Mike and me are pretty rare. We have been chatting about big stuff lately and it has been wonderful to reconnect. We needed this time together and we had a ball. Hope was a perfect traveling companion and she just seemed so darn thrilled with our undivided attention.

She slept the entire four hour ride there which gave us lots of time to talk-work talk, finance talk, retirement down the road kind of talk, etc.. Then when we got there we revisited some of our old stomping grounds such as old apartments complexes, restuarants and jobs. We ate good food and shopped a ton. Our lives are so busy right now that even finding time to shop for clothes for ourselves is a rare treat and Mike came home with two new sportcoats and two new pairs of pants. I will not itemize what I bought, so lets just say I found several things as well:)

Our little get away was just what the doctor ordered for us and hopefully we can do it more often. Life is hard and stressful so we need to be more purposeful in making time to reconnect and have fun!! Mike is a ton of fun, but the drudgery of life often steals that joy. My belly is full from a good Bodo's bagel, my heart is full for my man, and overall everything is better when a little retail therapy is involved!!!

Hope 11 Months

Sweet Hope you are amazingly 11 months old now!! I cannot believe we are just four short weeks away from your big birthday! You are such a sweet heart and we all love you so!

My guess is that you are about 18 pounds now and you wear 6-12 month clothes. You wear size 2 shoes and size 3 diapers. What I notice about your pictures this month is that your hair is coming in so fast!!

You love books and your babies. You are super super shy and you are not fond of strangers at all:) You often bury your head if someone talks to you:)

This picture shows your little temper!!! If we take something you are playing with you pitch a fit! You especially love our Blackberry phones and you throw a fit if we take them from you!! I love this picture:)

You love playing with stuffed animals, babies, or anything like that:) Here you are playing with my Bert and Ernie from growing up!

You may have a temper, but do you ever have the sweetest smile and belly laugh. We all work hard everyday to hear that sweet laugh and the boys can get you laughing in your car seat. You have the sweetest smile:)

You also have this super serious side where you look like your Daddy!

One of the exciting things lately is that all your new hair coming in has a little curl to it and that is so exciting! I cannot wait to see if it is curly and what color it will eventually be.

You love walking in your stroller but only if you can see me:) You nap usually twice a day but rarely in your own bed.

We love you sweet Hope!

Dave

Dave is all about the flip cam these days and loves watching videos of himself. Here are two cute videos that we have taken recently. In the top one, he and Ashely are playing outsde in the wagon and the other video is Tball.

Enjoy these silly little moments of time. I cannot believe that we are about to close the chapter on another school year. Time is flying so fast these days. I just bought the party supplies for Hope's first birthday coming up in June. I cannot believe that she is just a month and a few days shy of the big day.

We are in science fair project mode around here this week and of course we also have lots of ball games and swimming for both boys. I am trying to enjoy this crazy pace because life is flying past us so fast these days:) I am so thrilled about the prospect of summer and I am just as excited as the kids are for the last day.

Last summer was magical because we had a new baby in the house, but we were super limited in what we could do. We had lots of company and we also had lots of rain. This summer I am excited about the prospect of fun family time!! I have spent a lot of time browsing vacation stuff online and we just recently joined a neighborhood pool.

Enjoy the Dave videos and I will post more baseball pics when I can get some good ones!

It's All Good

After this hectic week where Mike did not sleep in our house three nights due to two different work trips, today as we are all eating breakfast at a lazy pace, I just feel like saying "it's all good now." May is a brutal month in our household as sports are in full swing, work is hectic for Mike, and school is winding down. This morning I am so thankful that Mike is here with us and not traveling. He amazes me that he can fit everything in and still be the type of hands-in, involved Daddy that he wants to be. He does it by giving up a lot of personal fun and giving what precious free time he has to his children. He is cool like that!

Yesterday I took the kids and a few extras to see the movie, Fury Vengance. It is silly and hilarious and I laughed so hard I thought I was going to choke on my popcorn. The boys were so good while Mike was gone that going to the movies after school was their reward.

I am starting the weaning process with Hope, but every nursing that we cut out, we seem to add it in later in the day. Oh well, she is my last and if I want to indulge in a few extra months of nursing, so be it. I know very soon she will be so busy walking that she will not be as interested in her momma:) She will eventually be weaned, it's all good.

I have really enjoyed cleaning the baby stuff out of our house recently. There is something so bittersweet about cleaning out all the infant gear from your house. Our living room is piled high with stuff to donate/sell. In the past I have always been reluctant to put away the baby gear-but it's all good this time!

Tomorrow as we approach Mother's Day I am thankful that Mike and I both have our mothers in our lives. I am also abundantly thankful for the three children in my life. I never, never thought I would have one child, much less THREE! Right after we got married we thought we would have extreme difficulty conceiving and it still overwhelms me that God worked three miracles. To think that He also felt us worthy is parent David REALLY blows me away:) I am so thankful to be a mommy:)

I am off to enjoy this pretty day with all thre of my boys and my little girl. I am a blessed woman:)

Picture Recap

Spring is busy but fun! Here are some updated pictures showing what we have been up to these days!

Here is Hope and her friend Brady at library storytime. Every Tuesday unless we are sick Hope and I are at Together Time at our local library. We have an amazing children's librarian that does awesome programs for children at the library. Hope has gone this whole year and she loves it! She is mesmerized by Mrs. Tracy's voice and loves seeing her friends:)

Here are Mrs. Tracy's boys, Alex and Owen-look how darn cute their shirts are!! They come each week also to hear their Mommy read books.

Here is Brady listening intently to the book being read.

Hope crawling around before storytime started.

Mrs. Tracy sings a welcome song each time and Hope loves it!

Kyle's pitching machine season is in full swing and his team is doing great!! Mike is the head coach for his team and both boys are having a blast with this:) Kyle is hitting well and he is really enjoying this season. We have games in our town and then we travel to other nearby teams. Here he is getting ready to hit.

He typically plays pitcher.

When we are not at the ball field for Kyle, then we are there for David's tball team, The Marlins. Mike is the assistant coach for this cute team and David loves Tball.


Here he is on first base. The first time he made it on base, he was so excited that he hugged his first base coach! It was so cute!!

Kyle got this hilarious picture of David running. They have to wear helmets when they are on bases, but his is way too big and flops around when he runs. He does very well hitting and then taking off to run!:)

Hope spends a lot of time at the ballfield so here she is playing on a blanket with her rice bin that I sometimes remember to bring. It gives her a chance to play on the blanket and I can actually get to see the boys bat. Hope is such a mommy's girl that she will not sit with anyone else.

I cannot believe it is May and that the boys have roughly 5 weeks of school left. This year has flown by but we are all getting so excited for summer! I have been on the computer this week making vacation plans and we are joining the country club pool in our neighborhood. David is going to do summer school for two weeks and Kyle is also going to volunteer at the summer enrichment program. I am ready for swimming and other summer fun:)

A tired Davey after a day at the ballfield:) Check out the gatorade ring around his lips!! Love it!

Brain Overload

I wave the white flag-I surrender!! My little brain is so full that it is in overload mode. Life has been busy, crazy, scary, and overall overwhelming in our household over the past week. The fact that I went ALL WEEK without blogging truly was a sign that the world was spinning too fast for this gal. Here is the recap:

Last week was rolling smoothly until we had a regular dental appointment with Mr. Kyle that showed that he needs a little work-not what we wanted to hear at all.

Then, we got news that my dear Dad who was on his annual fishing trip to Nags Head landed in the hospital with some scary symptoms that Praise Jesus was only a bleeding ulcer. He spent three days in the Outer Banks hospital and got back home today. Poor thing...he was super sick and thankfully my brother was able to go be with him. My brother stepped up big and I just need to give him some props on the blog! My brother and I are close (disagree sometimes) but we texted like crazy last week as he was in the hospital playing Florence Nightingale to my dad:)

Then, the night that we were waiting to see what was going on with my Dad, I could not sleep and Hope was gassy so I took her downstairs to the basement to sleep. I stepped foot in that room and my foot squished with water. Seriously, a ton of water had saturated that carpet. After much insurance drama, we have ripped the carpet out and we are in drying out mode and may possibly put some hardwood floors in to replace. The only bummer is that this one will come out of our pocket.

Then this weekend has been full of baseball fun and we did get some fun family time at the ballfield. This time of year is super crazy and I am trying to roll with it instead of freaking out. Mike is gone a lot over the next few weeks and his schedule is full.

Tonight, however, I got the huge blessing to go to REACH 2010 here in our community. Jerry Moore, Appalachian State football coach was the speaker of the night. His team beat Michigan in 2007 which was a HUGE upset. He is a great coach, but more importantly he is a great Christian man and I was so blessed to hear him speak tonight.

I took Kyle and Hope and I enjoyed the worship music beforehand. I really enjoyed Jery Moore's message about raising young men with warrior souls that are trained to do the right thing. He autographed this newspaper for Kyle and it said "always do more than what is expected" I love it. I have always pondered and inquired about how to raise Godly young men with a heart for doing the right thing even when it is tough to do so. I SO want Kyle to be that kind of kid/young man and I as a mother learned so much tonight. I wish Mike could have heard him because he would have enjoyed it also.


Coach Moore talked about choices that young guys have to face and he preaches to his players to stay the course and do the right thing in everything you do-relationships, jobs, family life, and also on the football field. I have learned so much being a sports mom and he was so encouraging to me tonight. I pray that Kyle has coaches like him in the future. Mike has preached to our boys forever to do the right thing and this message tonight reiterated that to Kyle. Kyle got to meet him, get his picture taken with him and his autograph.

This week looks busy, but hopefully the drama of last week has passed and I can read some of the scripture references that Coach Moore provided tonight. We all could use a fresh dose of The Word and this overwhelmed Mom is no exception-have a great week!