Thursday, August 1, 2013

Random 2014

A bunch of random:
Before:
After:
I had to do highlights 2 more times in order to get the blonde I like...see Robots in GA post to see the final result.  I finally am blonde again!

Daddy time:
 Mommy time:
 More loose teeth:
Daddy is teaching himself guitar!  He is a natural.  I am so proud of him!
 Yet another accident for Syd.  This time she fell at the Burger King plaground.  This kid will give me my first grey hair.  She is such a clutz!
 "I don't wanna see in my sleep mama"
 "Look at me!"
 At a Cirque de Solei type show that we went to at the college (which was amazing), Dylan was chosen from the audience to help out.  He was perfect, and hilarious.  He is my little performer.
 The best toy on the planet.  The Box.
For the future:
Andrew loves these girls...he is even painting nails!  Love it!

 My best sleeper:  This girl still takes 3 hour naps everyday!  She even puts herself to sleep after she throws fits.  No joke.  She will go to her room mad, shut the door, and 20 minutes later when I go to check on her she is in bed, asleep.  It is fantastic.  She is by far my best and easiest sleeper.  Let just hope this next one follows suit.  Oh and this blankie...it goes EVERYWHERE!  Usually she has the corner peice over her forehead for comfort.  I dont know, but it is dang cute.  We have had some close calls with this blanket but it is still hanging on strong!
 this is Benjamin Harralson, Dylans best friend.  Syd adores him....can you tell?
 I remember playing with this barbie set when I was a kid.  Thanks auntie Em for sending it over.  The girls love it!
 Jordan Mount (15) had to undergo a pretty serious surgery involving the removal of his colon.  He has ulcerative colitis.  He has been struggling with this for years, and after many extensive and invasive procedures, they have decided to go ahead and remove it.  This was a picture that Dylan drew for him while he was in the hospital with his first surgery.  I thought it was hilarious and pretty creative (Olivia is his sister).  (Check out his name...lol) I love this kid!

Daddy learned how to do braids!  Look how good he is?
 Touch a truck day with the library program:
 Happy 12 Anniversary:
Pride and Prejudice and Chocolate fondue
Vacation Bible School:
This was our first year sending the kids to VBS and they loved it.  They went every evening for a week and cried and whined when we had to leave every night.  They still sing the songs at home.  This will be a yearly tradition in our family for sure.
 I was going through a rough patch there for a bit with my pregnancy and my brother went ahead and ordered me an early bday present to cheer me up.  Wonder woman!  Love it!  Somehow when I put it on, it makes me feel a whole lot better.  I guess that was the point right?  I am here to testify that it totally works.  :)
 My darling Macey Face:
 Morning Snuggles:  Many mornings I wake up to screaming and fighting over blankets and food, but often I wake up to the three of them cuddled together watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory or How its Made. 
 Year 2 of Camp WIILD speech camp at the college.  
Our last goodbye to our hamsters:  
We loved them for a year, but with a new baby coming and the stink of the cage, I had to get rid of the rodents.  If we had a place to put them where they would get played with and wouldn't bother Daddy's clients, we could have kept them, but in my living room?  Nope. The kids were very sad, but those things were always getting out and they ripped up a lot of our carpets.  The girls were always forgetting to close the cage, and I was done dealing with it.  Sad, but they have moved on.  Dylan just got a hermit crab.  That is more like it!
 We finally took Sydney into an allergist to do an official allergy test.  We put Sydney on gluten for about a month before hand so that Gluten and dairy would be in her diet.  Wow, was that a bad idea!  She was a beast!  She was crying and flailing herself all over the place.  It was good to see though because many people in the family witnessed it as well and knew that it had to be the Gluten. The GF test came back negative however which means she just has an intolerance… thank goodness, and she is fine with lactose.  So, we have decided to put her back on the GF diet, but we are allowing her some dairy…just not a ton.  I do find that she is crankier on cows milk, so we give her cheese products and yogurts in minimal amounts.  I think it makes the diet more manageable for me, and it gives her more options and flavors without upsetting her tummy.  This was her first ice cream cone in almost 2 years! She kept asking, "is it special for my tummy?"  Sweet girl.  
This has been our new favorite tradition in the GA summer heat:  Go play at the park down the street for about 40 minutes until we are dying of heat, then walk to the library and read some books in the quiet air conditioned room.  Perfection.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Pregnant in my 30's!

We are having a baby!!!

Yes I know, I know I said I was done...but apparently that was not meant to be.  We will be expecting baby #4 on Dec 21st!  It's gonna be a Christmas Miracle! We are excited, though I have to be honest and say that I am a bit freaked out.  Even though this was not an accident, it also was not really planned...if that makes sense.  I really didn't think it would happen...so I am still a bit in shock over it all.  It will be great, I have no doubt about it...but holy cow, how will I do four kids!?  EEK!  Pray for me :)
 
We announced it to Facebook on Fathers Day (though we had known for a while). The kids are very excited!  Macey wants to name the baby Aleesa, Sydney wants it named Lucy, and Dylan wants it to be a boy named Aaron. We will see what happens!  In the meantime, Macey wants everyone to know that she is having twins and they are named Aleesa and Hayden.

We did have a minor complication early on.  It was a bleed/blood clot of some kind (I can't remember the name), and I was told to not lift during my first trimester and to "take it easy and rest".  That's really not the easiest thing when you have three kids and it is summer.  We are not sure if this complication has cleared or not so only the ultrasound will let me know how everthing is going.  We get to go in and find out the sex on August 5th!  So check back to find out new details!

Monday, June 3, 2013

Congrats Grads!

They did it!  These boys (the oldest of my nephews), have finally graduated!  Congrats boys!  Conner will be off To Brazil in August to serve a full time LDS mission.  Andrew will be going to The University of West Georgia...so we will get to see a lot of him still.  :)
This was a long ceremony with a huge class.  Madison and I had to waste time by looking at EVERY page of her yearbook. So fun!  I love my nieces and nephews!


Due o the pre-party dinner at Osaka, the two big men were absent from this pic.  Lol. The food didn't sit so well with many of us that night.  :)

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Schools Out for Summer!

This year we were blessed to have the most fabulous teachers.  Dylan after having a rough year last year, had nothing negative to say this year about school or his teacher.  He loved Mrs. Brown and his quest teacher.  Often times he woke up actually excited to go to school! Thank you Andrea Brown for helping Dylan remember how much he loved learning!

During the last week of school, Dylan won the math Olympics in his class. Hes the man!

Sydney had Phenominal teachers.  I will forever be indebted to them for all of thier extra help and encouragement throughout the year.  We will moss them tremendously!  
Mrs Casey Chadwick:
And much like her Scottish Grandma, Mrs Karen Roach:
Besties:






Wednesday, May 22, 2013

First Robotics Competition 2012- St Louis

Dylan and I had the opportunity to go to St Louis again to help out with Aliya during the robotics competition.  We had a blast toting around town and visiting some of our favorite places:
City Museum:




 Zoo:
 Science Museum:
 Art Museum: