Ballerina Princess

If there were ever any doubt about Emily's love for ballet, I would say this journal entry puts those doubts to rest! Her journal actually had several different entries about ballet in it, but this is the only one with a ballerina drawn onto the page, so I had to share it!


And while we're on the topic of ballet, I thought I would share with you some pictures of my little ballerina from the recital weekend:

Here she is, hanging out backstage, waiting for her group's turn


posing with her flowers (first time in four years I've remembered to take a picture of her holding her flowers!)


Emily and Ali (my niece-to-be!)


posing with the backdrop after the show


Emily, Katie, and Anya


Emily and I (again, first time in four years I've gotten a picture of at least one of her parents posing with her while she's in costume--and I'm not wearing nice clothes for the occasion because I was room mom backstage for this performance)

♥Cousins♥Friends♥

Long story short, Alisa (my SIL-to-be) asked me to be a bridesmaid in her and my brother's wedding this August. Alisa's sister's MIL is making the wedding gown and four of the six bridesmaid's dresses. Alisa and Ali (Alisa's daughter) took the kids and I out to the lady's house for me to get measured, and for Alisa to be fitted with the sample bodice the gal put together. On the way home, we stopped at a neat park that was recently put in, so the kids could have a better chance to play together.

Emily and Ali were giggling up a storm, swinging on this big swing, and I couldn't resist taking a few pictures. Ali is almost two full years older than Emily, but they get along very well, and really enjoy each other's company.





They were FAR more interested in having me take SILLY pictures of them, though!




While I was in the middle of taking funny pictures of them, Ali suddenly started screaming and laughing, and Emily joined in, and I couldn't figure out what the problem was. Emily pointed and I turned to look behind me, and there was Connor, three feet behind me, pants down around his ankles, peeing in the grass at the park. I snapped a picture of the girls before I realized what was going on:


I look forward to the girls continuing to get to know each other better, and building their friendship.

The Wheels of Life

Oh, God, I hope not...

PS Em's journals from school came home with her, and I had QUITE the good time going through and reading some of the entries! Be looking for more in the future!

Super Connor

I'm not sure WHY this surprised me, when one takes into consideration how physical and determined Connor is, but it totally blew me away to walk around the back side of the Big Toy and find Connor with his feet on the little footholds, and his hands on the rope, actually hoisting himself up, as if he'd been doing it for years!


He hadn't even quite turned three years old at that point!!

Em's photoshoot at JCPenney's

Here are my favorite pictures from Emily's recent session at JCPenney Portrait Studio: (she wanted her hair straightened for the session, and since it helped show off the length of her hair, I went ahead and did it for her)

The wheels on the bus go round and round...

My little J-Man got to ride on a school bus last week for the very first time! The Elementary School my kids attend hosts a Kinder orientation day, and they do a short bus ride for the Kinders to give them a chance to see what it's like BEFORE the first day of school. Jared was EXTREMELY excited for this day to happen!


Now he's bugging me when he gets to start school for Kindergarten! I'm personally in no rush. The idea of TWO of my babies being old enough for Elementary School is a little freaky. There's even four hours a week where all three kids will be in school at the same time--preschool for Connor, Elementary school for Em and J... (WHAT IN THE WORLD WILL I DO WITH MYSELF??)

Jared, you're on your way! Kindergarten will bring good things your way, buddy. You already wow'd our teacher of choice (along with impressing a 1st grade teacher) by showing off your reading skills. The whole world is out there waiting, and it's yours for the taking. Show 'em what you've got! But promise you'll enjoy the summer first, okay? Kindergarten will be there for you in the fall, I promise.

Emily sporting her new hair-do!

Before:






six measured out ponytails:


Cutting off the ponytails:


evening out the ends:


Checking that all the layers are even:


Posing with Tera!


After:




A nice, drastic, side by side comparison:

Today is the day!

At 9am, Emily is getting 12 inches of her hair cut off, and plans to donate it to Wigs for Kids. I will update later today with before/after pictures. She is SOOOO excited!

Emily's dance recital

Emily had the first showing of two shows for her dance recital last night. We have one little girl in the class who is WAY too young to be there, but the parent's pushed and got their way. She's darling and tries her best, but she's just nowhere near the same level as the other girls. We knew she'd kind of be doing her own thing, but no one expected the audience to enjoy it to the point of laughing through most of the performance. You can see Emily falter when the first laughs come through (she told me afterwards she thought everyone was laughing at HER at first), and she never fully recovers from it. She's stone-faced instead of smiling, and by the end, the laughter from the audience has gotten contagious, and the little gal causing it all is enjoying the heck out of things and is REALLY hamming it up. Em's in giggles and almost not even dancing by the end. I guess it is what it is (and maybe today will go better), but I was disappointed on behalf of the other girls who worked really hard and took it seriously, only to have the audience laughing the whole time... Their group did get the biggest applause of the night, though, so that's something! ha!

Happy Birthday Connor!

At 11.5 weeks pregnant with Connor, I had some very heavy bleeding, which they first thought was a partial placental abruption, but which turned out to be the amniotic sac separating from the uterus, leaving only the placenta to hold everything in place. We found out about the amniotic sac about a week after the initial bleed at a follow-up appointment. We were told at that point that they'd not yet seen a pregnancy continue after so much "damage", and we should expect to miscarry within the week. I went for another follow-up appointment the next week (so about two weeks after the initial bleed), fighting off tears in the waiting room, horrified at the idea they were going to tell me my baby was gone. Ultrasound showed baby not only alive, but alive and WELL. Had grown, had great heart-rate, etc. They were amazed, but said not to get our hopes up because it was still a very precarious situation. I went for weekly ultrasounds for about two months, and each week, the baby just kept growing and having normal vitals. Everything looked great with the baby. The amniotic sac eventually reattached itself to the uterus and I was taken off bed-rest and continued the last three months of the pregnancy as normal. The amniotic sac was GREEN when Connor was born, from having absorbed so much iron from all the loose blood and the blood clot from the intitial bleed. Connor was born a very healthy 8lb 3oz baby, without a single thing wrong with him but a tied tongue (which can't even be contributed to anything other than bad genetics...LOL). Every year on his birthday, I think long and hard about our ordeal, and how lucky we are to have him. There were MONTHS where it was more realistic that I would miscarry, and on days where he wouldn't move much, and I had extremely valid reasons to be concerned. It was stressful and heart-breaking, and my thoughts go out to all the women who had different outcomes than we did.

Connor, you were a fighter beyond all reason during the pregnancy, and even though you drive me bananas most days with your stubborness and you're willingness to fight me over EVERYTHING, I love that fighting spirit because it's what kept you with us when everyone said you'd never make it.

Happy 3rd birthday, my sweet little fighter. I love you so much, and am so thankful to have you in my life. You were the baby we hadn't officially planned, but you were the baby we fought the hardest to keep. You bring me joy and laughter and SOOOO much love, every day. It's hard to believe 3 years have come and gone since your birth. You'll always be my baby, and I'll always hold onto you a little harder because I know how close we came to missing out on all this. May this year bring you many more adventures and wonders and laughter and fun.

newborn:


One year old:


HORROR OF HORRORS, it appears I never took a picture of Connor at age 2 with his bear???????? CRY!!!!!!!!!! I'm so upset!

sigh...

Well, here's a picture of him WITHOUT the bear at age 2!


And here he is, on his third birthday!

Speaking Connor

mandri (the i at the end has the same sound as igloo) = sandwich

Are you going out of me? = Are you going without me?

movie feeter = movie theater

willy = Lily (neighbor)

Me-sello = Miss Michelle (neighbor)

AJ = EJ (neighbor)

fwalers = flowers

I'M NOT GONNA GIVE YOU ALL MY MONEY!! (while stomping his foot with each word spoken) = I'm really mad at you

nuggle = snuggle

soffy = soft (he has a "soffy bwanket" he "sweeps wiff"/sleeps with at night *grin*)

poon = spoon (He doesn't say the S sound in words that start with s and are then followed by a consonant. The most hilarious one is when he runs into the kitchen saying he needs a big "poon")

cuse-a-me = excuse me

effle-ant = elephant

wickalish = licorice

tuff-es = stuff ("Jared taked-ed all my tuff-es away from me!")

no not! = no, it's not. or no, I'm not

wittle = little

wookit = look at (just about anything that starts with L has a W sound instead)

NOOO! = and that's my final say on the matter

bwoon = balloon

grill = girl

seelow = cereal

And don't ever tell him, "You're not the boss" because he will very quickly reply, "Yes, I am!"

I'm sure there are a lot more, but it's hard to think of them all! It's so cute how he talks. I just hope it doesn't last too far into Elementary School, because I know kids can be pretty cruel later in life. For now, it's ADORABLE!

Just like the cat!

You will often find my cat, Bella, lounging on the floor, wherever the sun comes through from the skylight. As the sun moves across the sky, and the patch of sun on the floor moves, so will she. The sun heats up that patch of floor and makes it nice and toasty warm.

I walked into the kitchen Monday and had a good laugh when I found the boys lounging in the sun patch under the skylight, just like the cat!


Connor has asked me frequently in the past, "Do you want to sit in the sun with me?" and we will sit and read a book or something on the sun-warmed floor, but I hadn't yet seen any of the kids sprawled out like that!

ha ha!

Pictures of the new sliding glass door.

Can I just start by saying how much I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE my new sliding glass door? Big giant puffy heart LOVE LOVE LOVE my new sliding glass door.

With that out of the way, here are some "before" pictures. I wish I'd thought to take some video of how LOUD this door was.


Here begins the process of removing the old door




Connor was REALLY interested in the portion of the job where my WONDERFUL Uncle Jeff (who did the labor for us) used the circular saw to cut around the door so the old one would come out. I thought it was really cute how Connor was standing there with his ears plugged because of the noise (I wasn't fast enough taking his picture...). But I didn't think about how my uncle happened to be cutting near some electrical wires at that very moment, and the flash from the camera startled him. OOPS!


Here is the old door going...


going...gone!


Out with the old, in with the new:


All trimmed in and everything (the trim just needs a paint job)




I'm AMAZED at how much brighter the room feels without the dark aluminum catching your eye. Several times I've walked into the room and had to do a double-take. LOVE IT!

Can't wait to get all the windows done now, too. I've had a taste of wonderfulness and I'm craving more... *grin*

And you guys want to know what made the day even better???? My Auntie tagged along and did some weeding for me!!!!!


Uncle Jeff...Auntie... YOU ROCK, and we appreciate all your hard work VERY VERY much.

Look at the difference! (too bad I didn't take the comparison pictures at similar times of day!)