Moving On.....

Here I am, living in a community where everyone "puts in their time" and leaves. We came with this intention as well, but yet, we are still here. Don't get me wrong, I am not unhappy about staying here in Village Green. I absolutely love it! I love the people, all the kids, our home, the great deal it is, maintenance, the gardens, I could go on and on. However, these last few months have been hard while I've watched many who we moved here with and thought I would move away with, leave. An hour ago, I just watched one of my very best friends leave. She was the last of my close friends to leave and I sit here wondering exactly what my feelings are.



I know I didn't do this with my other close friends that left, but in my defense it's purely just because they left at a very busy and bad time. One in fact, left basically in the night without me even saying good-bye (you know who you are). So, to all those friends, I love you and please know that, but know this post if for you too.


These last 2 weeks have been just Razzle G and me.....and our kids. With our husbands studying for the bar night and day, we have been single mothers together. Our kids could basically call eachother brothers after the time they have spent together. Razzle G (by the way, her nickname, not mine) is one of the most unselfish and giving people I have ever met in my life. She is constantly serving and she is someone that you want to be just like. I can't count the times she came over to my house with a smile on her face telling me she wanted to clean something and said, let's just go room to room. I honestly think she has cleaned my basement more than I have. Embarrassing, I know. I really had great intentions to write her a card and get her a present to thank her, but of course, being me things didn't come together and I didn't. So...this post if for her.


Razzle G,
Thanks for introducing me to your Bucky's concoction. Thanks for running with me everyday and being so excited about doing it. It's going to be hard running without you and your chipperness. Thanks for cleaning my house countless times. Thanks for being my kids second mommy these last few weeks. Thanks for being someone I look up to and want to be like. I know I speak for many in the VG that have been blessed by your service when I say thank you.
I am glad you are moving to my second home.
See you next week,
Allie

Jack with one of his best buddies, Ben

Jack, Creigh, Ben, and Alex

Note to everyone else that left me here in the VG: I can't wait for you to get back....even though I will probably be gone when you do. :) We'll have to catch back up in September. JB: Bad timing on your trip by the way. jk

Napping

Do you ever have those moments when walking by your bedroom, you see your bed, and you literally cannot walk away from it because it is beckoning to you? Last weekend, I had these moments, and the entire time laying there I knew I would regret it. In fact, while lying there the first time, I smelled something very sweet. It smelled good. Did this worry me? Yes, but my body told my brain I didn't care. Then, I smelled the sweet with maybe some cleaning material. Did this worry me? Yes, however, I knew the damage had probably already been done so I slowly got up and went down the stairs with my eyes closed. The aroma got stronger and stronger with each stair. The sound of my children scurrying to hide, made me more concerned. However, they weren't running to hide. Instead, when I reached the bottom of the stairs and looked over in the kitchen, they were standing there as proud as they could be. "We Cleaned!" Armed with the Windex and noticing the floor was quite wet, I thought, this can't be that bad. I can clean this up quickly. However, when I stepped on the floor and my foot kind of stuck to the ground and then saw my kids shirts died pink, I felt differently. After perusing over the evidence I discovered the "sweet smell." I had two packages of Crystal Light on my counter which they decided to eat like powdered candy. That mixed with Windex is how they cleaned my floor. So, if you ever want a great fruity smelling floor cleaner, there you have it......windex and crystal light powder. No problem that it is one of the stickiest concoctions you could make.



The next day I succumbed to my bed again, Jackson found a magic marker and decided to color our table, tv, basketball hoop, along with many other various objects (I am still finding). Yes, he is 4. Why? I don't know. Shouldn't 4 year olds know this by now? Apparently not mine. Then today, while I was NOT napping (I should have been because obviously it doesn't matter if I think I am paying attention.) Creighton went in the "Mommy and Daddy room" (as my kids call it) and got a magic marker and proceeded to color all over his body and do some more artwork to the basketball hoop. There were 4 little kids down there when he did this and one finally came up and informed me of what was occurring. I guess it could have been worse without that informant. I am grateful for that. Here is a picture of some of the artwork.
So...the moral of the story. Napping or not napping, my kids will be naughty, so I don't think I will say no to my bed just for that reason.


P.S. No, I am not napping because I am pregnant. Believe me, I am having adequate amounts of birth control daily. After being a single parent (basically, with Mitch studying for the bar from about 6am-9pm) all week, I just really needed a nap.

7 months --- I love this age!

Easton is now 7 months old and I absolutely love this age. I have always loved 6-9 months and I am especially loving it with Easton because he hasn't started teething yet (Jack and Creigh started at 4 months). Here are some picture of my sweet little Easton.

Check out his fat roll tan lines.

Here are a few things about Easton at this age:

1. He is now getting picky with his food. He will no longer eat everything given to him. He has decided he doesn't like the green stuff. Slowly over the last few weeks he finishes less and less of those jars of baby food, but the last time he actully was gagging.

2. He rolls absolutely everywhere. No need to crawl because he can get anywhere he wants by rolling.

3. He is starting to want to crawl, but he can't quite figure it out and it's hilarious to watch him try. He lately has been getting in full on push up position (I need to get a picture of this), but after about 7 seconds he realizes he doesn't know what to do next and lays back down and rolls over.

4. He is pooping regularly and I am HATING it. I was spoiled with the every 5 day thing. Until this last month, he maybe had 1 to 2 blowouts ever before. Now....I feel like it is every day. It doesn't help that I made the biggest mistake of my life and to save a few bucks bought Sam's Club's brand of diapers and have 200 of them. He pees and blows out of them everytime.

5. Easton is the tannest baby! Holy crap, he has got beautiful olive skin. He is tanner than my other 2 boys and he has got the cutest tan line rolls on his ankles that make me smile everytime he points his feet. I tried to take a picture (above), but it's not a very good one. You'll have to check it out in person.

6. He consistently sleeps at least 10 hours every night. We are working on 12. I will let you know when we get there.

7. He is so cute! Seriously, if you look at these pictures and don't think this, you must be crazy. However, he is my child so I think I may be a little more fond of him than others. I really want to squeeze him everytime I see him....and when I do, he laughs. Oh, just talking about this makes me want to wake him up to play with him. I will resist the urge, however.

4th of July

I love the 4th of July! I love BBQ's, I love fireworks, and I love to see my kids light up when they watch the fireworks. We had a bunch of people over to celebrate with a BBQ and then we did a few fireworks and let the kids to sparklers. Nothing fancy, but here are a few pics from the evening.

This is where E spent the evening. He's such a good boy.

The kids found this baby bird's nest with tiny baby birds. I am sure that the birds didn't survive, it was really sad. The kids didn't know this though, so they thought it was pretty cool.

Can you see them? They are gray and sooo tiny.
Creighton really is a crack up.

The kids waiting for their sparkler to be lit.

This is my 4th of July star I made at Super Saturday. It's just scrapbook paper modge podged on. Thanks to Carissa for her wonderful creativity to think this up!