nothing really...

not too much to say... just wishing i had a couple extra hours in the day to get everything for christmas done. but it's the same thing every year... i think i'm just about done, and then make a list, and have an "oh, shit!" moment when i realize all the little gifts, and last minute things pile up.

fingers crossed i can keep my sanity this week!!! and here's a couple of photos from the weekend...

our tree and stockings

all four of the kids actually looking in (somewhat) the same direction.

the boys all sporting their patriot shirts... all #12 tom brady!

Merry Christmas... our card!

Christmas/Holiday cards are my favorite!!! i love making mine every year, and love when they start coming in the mail! i hang them all up in my kitchen so i can look at them often. i even have a folder that i keep them all in. one of these days i will put them all in an album. i love watching how all my friends families have grown over the years. and with some families it has turned into our only way we stay connected.

so... here is my 2011 card.

(front)

(back)

i love how the back is a full picture that can be framed by our families and i didn't have to get try to get prints for everyone who wanted them.

Dear Hadley

Dear Hadley,

Happy 3rd birthday to my beautiful daughter! I just can't believe how fast the time is going by... You are a girly girl to the extreme! You love all things pink and are quite fond of the princesses. Aurora (sleeping beauty) is your favorite, because she wears pink!

You are finally settled in at school, and love it! Miss Laurie is your favorite teacher, and she just adores you. She even babysat last weekend, and that was awesome! You have a couple of girls in class that you are starting to get friendly with, but you are just so shy most of the time.

Ballet is your favorite activity, and I just watch in amazement as you follow along and do the routine. You are the youngest in the class, but you wouldn't know it. I wish you could do it more than once a week... i can't wait for your recital in the spring!

You love your brothers so much! You can be kinda a pill at times, and even a little annoying, but you are so lucky to have three brothers who love you so much.

You are a complete daddy's girl. You love to snuggle with him, and play. He has a hard time telling you "no", and I sometimes worry about how spoiled you will be.

You are my best little friend. You always ask if we can get our nails done. And when we do you sit so still and let your toes dry. It makes you so happy, and it is a fun mother/daughter activity.

You are in the phase now were band-aids make everything better. Your brothers never went through this, but i am now stocked up on all sorts of pink band-aids. What can i say? It's an easy fix!

I am looking forward to watching you grow, learn and explore a lot this year. The biggest thing we will be working on is the potty. You are not into it, and show no interest at all. Hopefully something will click soon.

I love you my Hadley... Thank you for all the love, joy, and pink you bring to our family!!!

Love, Mommy

xoxo

happy birthday hadley

miss hadley turned 3 years old on dec. 7th!!! all she wanted for her birthday was a princess castle. she is a girl who loves her princesses!!!

we also got hadley an ornament for her birthday... she loves ballet so much, and when i saw this ornament i knew it was perfect!!!

last sunday we had miss hadley's pink party! we kicked the boys out of the house, and invited a small group of girls and moms over. i made some pink foods and punch, and the girls made a craft, had cake, and then before we had time to do gifts, the birthday girl fell asleep. poor thing!

thanksgiving... better late than never!

this will be quick... i am home today with a sick little girl who can't seem to shake this fever. i was going to blog about miss hadley's 3rd birthday, but realized i had some thanksgiving pics i never uploaded. so here goes...

this year my parents were coming over for thanksgiving since they are in the apartment until their townhouse goes through. i was all set to cook everything, but we were having some issues with our oven. what a bummer!!! i was able to make all the sides on the stove top, and my parents brought the turkey. (not a bad deal actually)

craig brought the boys to the high school football game... they went last year and loved it. it's a great tradition to start.

we were blessed to celebrate (aka eat) twice this year. our friends were home with no family around, so i thought it would be fun to have a 2nd thanksgiving later in the day with them. my friend loves to cook, so she was excited! it is also nice to see our kids have other kids to play with.

it was a great day!!! after eating lots of yummy food and getting the kids to bed, i headed out with my friend to tackle black friday!!! it was my first time out, and it was fun... we went to the stores that opened at midnight. i will be doing it again next year, but with more of a plan and a list!

i didn't take a lot of pictures, but i did get one of me with the littles...

he's growing up...

my little man is sure growing up... he's off his bottle and drinking from a sippy cup. he no longer drinks formula either... he's loves his milk! and he eats everything that we eat, no more baby food!!!

did i ever blog after graham's one year appointment? hmmm... i don't think i did. well, i would have to get out the officially paperwork to see, but basically graham dropped from the 50th % in weight, to the 15th. he is so little... especially since all the other kids were above the 90th. so we are trying to fatten him up and we will bring him back for a weight a check.

graham is starting to say a couple of "words"... mama, dada, yaya (my mom), and nie nie for night night. he gives kisses and hugs. he's such a good boy!!! i love him so much!

part of me just wants to keep him my baby forever... i don't want him to grow up because i know we will never do this again. but then there is so much freedom as we finish with each stage. so many emotions!!!

next up... walking!!! then the real fun starts!

4 kids!!!

i know i should probably write about our thanksgiving, and my black friday shopping experience, but i'm going to skip ahead for a second...

my 15th high school reunion was saturday night. i went with some of my friends, and the majority of the people left their spouses at home. so craig was not able to experience this with me fully!

first of all, you can tell who pays attention to facebook and who doesn't by just the questions they asked... where do you live, how many kids, etc.

let's just say, that i am going to have a button made that says "yes, i really have four kids!"

it was like a foreign language i was speaking or something. four kids!!! who the heck has four kids these days!!! (well actually quite a lot of families in the town i live now... but not so much where i grew up.)

my friend lori who i went with had to deal with the other end of the questions... "when are you having kids?" "why don't you want kids?" "are you having problems getting pregnant?" her button should say "i love my life, and i don't want kids... not because i don't like kids, i just don't want to have any thankyouverymuch!"

it was great to see a lot of old friends... some people i ignored, the same as high school, some people i never made an effort to talk to, i had great conversations with. all in all, it was a fun night.

here's a couple pics that were on facebook - i didn't bring a camera.

my mason...

i'm so very thankful for my mason... what a joy! i love his smile and eyes! he gets so excited about everything. he wants so much to be just like his big brother... it is cute and annoying all mixed together.

he loves to snuggle, and get hugs! he is a good boy! loves school, sports, and life in general!

when you have four kids, it is nice to have one just like him! he fits into our family perfectly, and isn't high maintenance.

i love my mason man!!!

i love you

i am very thankful for carter... he is my oldest boy and when he is not fighting with mason, is a big help with the littles. he loves playing with graham, and is really a great big brother to hadley. he and mason have a love/hate relationship going on.

lately carter does the cutest thing... he picks out his clothes at night and leaves a note to ask if what he picked out is ok. often he asks me to write back... my little pen pal. the other night he left his note, and then at the bottom it said "p.s. check under your pillow" so of course i go to check right away, and there was a note that said "i love you".

how cute is that??? it totally made my day!

happy birthday graham!!!

dear graham,

happy 1st birthday baby boy! you are the sweetest baby ever! i love you to pieces! you are so lovable, cute and happy! you are a lucky boy to have 3 older siblings to love you so much... they always want to hold you, kiss you and give you hugs!

you are such a sport... you go to all their games, schools and activities. blessed... our family is blessed to have you part of it.

you are my baby! and no matter how old you grow, and how big you get, you will always be my baby!

you want to move! you crawl like a champ, and pull up on everything you can. you want so much to walk... you are just not brave enough to try. soon enough you will be on the go, so for now, we will just wait and watch.

i am so proud of you though... you are now finally an eating machine. for the longest time you would gag whenever we tried to feed you real food. but now, you finally figured it out and love it! you eat pretty much whatever our family eats. you love pasta, mac and cheese, yogurt, and cheerios.

graham, i just love you so much... you make my days brighter and happier. i am so lucky to be your mom. i can't wait to see how much you grow and accomplish over the next year!

love you forever,

Mommy

xoxo

my hubby...

i am so thankful for my hubby! he is my best friend, an amazing husband, and an awesome dad! we make a great team...

i love you craig!!!

xoxo

thankful for my girl...

i am so thankful for my beautiful girl... she is so sweet! of course she is 2, and sometimes likes to remind me, but for the most part she is a good girl.

she is adjusting well to school, and has even made a little friend (johanna)... they are cute together. she loves her teachers, and they love her! she is clearly teacher's pet, but that's ok. she needs the extra tlc. her favorite part of the day is playing with the play doh and painting. i am even letting her stay for an extended day (until 1:00) once in a while since she loves it so much.

miss hadley loves dancing school!!!! it is her favorite!!! she no longer holds her teacher's hand and participates in all the activities. for the rest of the day she practices what she learned, and will show anyone and everyone all her moves! i can't wait for her recital!

she still loves all things pink, girly, and of course the princesses... today she was so funny. i put on her dress and then some aqua leggings, and she told me that those are her ariel pants for swimming. ariel doesn't wear pink like aurora. we just started watching "tangled" and love it!!! it's nice to get a break from star wars!

catalog season is in full swing and she is my girl! she will sit with me and look through all the catalogs and the pictures and tell me what she likes. she's just so cute!!! we have made quite the list for her birthday and christmas!
my hadley is sensitive too... i have been very sad about stephanie and hadley came into my bed and saw that i was crying. she asked if was sad, i told her yes, mommy was very sad. she laid on my chest and just hugged me for about 5 minutes. and then she got up and asked if was happy now. i am thankful in my house full of boys i have a little girl to keep me company. i can't wait to see how our relationship grows over the years.

not enough hours

i'm just going to vent for a moment... i don't do it often, but sometimes i just gotta let it out.

lots of parents were not so excited with the time change... gosh, i loved it! an extra hour! there is just not enough hours in the day to get it all done. i could get more done if i was willing to skip naps or have the kids nap on the fly, but i enjoy my quiet time too.

every night there is something to do... a meeting, an appointment, a conference, or a game. most days i just go with the flow and i love my life and everything that goes along with it. but weeks like this, i just need more time. graham's birthday is this week and i need to get some things for his party. and then of course i need to get the little man a gift. i was all set to order him a chair from pbk, but it was back ordered. now what to do?

ok, that's it... my little whine for the day is done. just feeling a tad bit stressed this week with everything going on.

here's a couple pictures of the kiddos... they are all growing up way too fast!!!

so sad...

today miss stephanie passed away. i am so sad! she was so amazing, and so positive. she will be missed so very much.

i pray for her children... that they have the strength to get through this difficult experience, and always hold close their memories.

rest in peace stephanie...

miss stephanie

it's after midnight and i can't fall asleep... too much on my mind, and i feel like crap.

my thankful post today is dedicated to miss stephanie. who is miss stephanie you ask? well, she is the most amazing, giving, loving, and generous woman. over 5 years ago she started babysitting for me. she is in her 40's, with 3 kids, and due to her terminal cancer diagnosis, was unable to keep her job at the preschool she worked at.

she was my mary poppins... always showed up in her big black suburban, with the back filled with toys, ready to play and do crafts with the kids.

she would be there for me as much or as little as i needed, and in return, when she had treatment, or wasn't feeling well, she could stay home.

she loves my kids. and they love her. we all do.

when i met her, she told me she had colon cancer... it wasn't curable, but treatable. and she has been doing her best to beat cancer, and live her life to the fullest. around the 4th of july she got bad news... her tumors were spreading and they were giving her 6 months to live. it took her over a month to tell me the news. i was devastated, and i cried for days. it just broke my heart.

she continued to babysit for me for another month, and then her health was going downhill. i was scared and nervous when i didn't hear from her, and texted her daughter. my gut was right... she was in the hospital, in the icu. i felt so helpless.

she is home now, and i think this is it. i send her texts every week to let her know i'm thinking of her. and i send pictures of the kids to make her happy. but it has now been another week with no word, and i am worried.

hadley asks for miss stephy all the time. it breaks my heart...

i am just so thankful for the time we had with her... and all the love and support she gave me as a mom, and to my kids.

(here's a pic of her with her daughters)

Thankful...

it's november. seriously, i feel like we were just at the beach yesterday!!! september just flew by. soccer sure does keep us busy! and i couldn't imagine spending my saturdays any other way! i love it. carter is on a travel team, and the games are fun to watch. i am the assistant coach for mason's kindergarten team, and it is just so much fun! he just loves it so much!

i am going to do my best to blog this month with the little things i am thankful for... today, it is easy. power!!! we had a storm saturday night, and although we don't usually get snow this early, it wasn't that crazy either. but man, you would think a tornado came through my town... trees, poles, and wires down everywhere!!! we woke up sunday morning to no electricity. i was a little shocked, since we were one of the lucky ones that didn't lose it when hurricane irene hit.

at first it was fun... we had to bundle up, because it was freezing out. but soon reality was hitting... it was going to get dark and colder. the patriots were playing at 4:15 and craig wanted to find a tv to watch (priorities), and they were predicting power outages until thursday. so when our friends called and said they could book us a hotel, we jumped on it. and so glad we did... hotels were selling out everywhere!!!

so we packed up and moved into one hotel room, for our family of 6... it was a "staycation"! schools were canceled monday and tuesday... heck, even halloween was postponed until friday. we made the best of it... we were with friends and we kept the kids busy, although they were going a bit stir crazy!

i was very thankful to come home today to my nice warm house... and a little personal space too!!!

11 months

seriously... 11 flipping months old!!! my baby... my last baby... he's on his way to becoming a big 1 year old and i am starting to really get sad. in a blink of an eye, he will be walking and talking... so then what???? on to the next chapter of our life without pregnancies, newborns, and infants!!!

graham is such a sweet boy... he just goes with the flow. i just love him!!!! and no, i'm not biased at all! ha!!! i just love watching his personality develop.

i am now officially in party planning mode. i am really trying to enjoy him, and all the kids, because it really does go by way too fast!!!!

big weekend for mason...

mason had a big weekend! he had his first soccer game after three weeks of practices. he was so excited! i wasn't feeling that great saturday morning, but i wasn't going to miss it. this year i am the assistant coach for his team, and the boys are so sticking cute!!!! i'll have to get some pictures next week.

mason also got a mohawk... he has been wanting one for quite some time. and it isn't the most authentic looking one, but his hair was so short from the summer, that we did the best we could and hopefully as the middle grows, it will look more like one. although if you as mason, he is thrilled!!! so happy!

and mason finally started riding his bike without training wheels... he took a spill on his new bike, and has been nervous to get on a bike without the training wheels. this weekend we got out his old bike, which is so little, but it was just what he needed! such a big boy!

moving...

my parents sold their house and moved out today. i have a lot of mixed emotions about it... but the best news is that they are just 10 minutes away now, and not an hour!!!

lots has happened since i took my break from blogging... my dad lost his job, and his feet/legs are still feeling the results of his chemo, so at this point the doctors are assuming it is permanent. the house, the yard and everything that goes with it was a lot to keep up with for him, so they deciced to sell!!! 12 days and 2 offers later... sold!!!!

they have an offer on a townhouse down here, but it's a shortsale, so they are doing all the steps that are necessary. in the meantime, they moved into an apartment today. tomorrow they will go up and close on their house.

we had a final sunday dinner there a couple weeks ago, and here's a picture of all the cousins.



i'm looking forward to having them close, and hopefully babysitting more on saturday nights too!!! :)

princess ballet

i signed hadley up for a princess ballet class... she is a little on the young side, but i figured it goes until june, so it was best to start early than see if they had space later. i also liked that this class runs all school year and not just for an 8 week session like the ones at the ymca.

the first week she wouldn't let go of miss judy's hand. but not tears, and she seemed to like it. she is getting more comfortable each week, and she loves it!!! she shows off her moves and talks about it non-stop!!!

there is a recital in the spring, which i am sure will be priceless!!!!

for the last 15 minutes of every class the girls get to dress up in their princess dresses! so.stinking.cute!!!

back to school

ok - let's try to get back into my blogging. i really love going back to look at everything i have documented, so i know i will be mad at myself if i don't do this.

carter - 3rd grade



this week of back to school was a bit different then other years. we got his by hurricane irene right before school started. although it didn't do much damage it did knock out 98% of our towns power. not sure how, but we were one of the few houses that never lost power.

it was a debate whether school would still open on time, but once they got power back, they went ahead with everything as planned. my guess is that while parents where running around trying to figure everything out, the kids could have a safe place to go.

i guess i never realized how many of our friends have well water... no power = no water
our friends that live down the road ended up staying with us while they waited for their power to come back... the kids all got along so good, and my friend love is a kick ass cook, so she made dinner each night. they stayed with us from monday - thursday, and although it wasn't ideal (especially for them) it will be a great memory. i can't imagine my kids every having a sleepover on the first day of school again.

mason - kindergarten




all the kids going off to school...


hadley also started school this year. she is going to the same preschool the boys went to. she just makes the cut off for the 2.9 program. she goes on tues/thurs from 9 - 11:30

the first day of school is poured!!!! so i didn't get too many good pictures. she has also been very shy and timid, and easing into the whole school thing. everyday she gets a little better and more comfortable.




now that we are settled in to our back to school routine, i am hoping to start organizing my house again!!!! and enjoying my trips to target with only child!!! especially since he doesn't ask for anything....

summer of fun!

wow.... long time no blog!!!

i completely took the summer off from blogging... i just needed a break and wanted to really have fun and enjoy my family.

we had so much fun this summer! let's see if i can start back up with this blogging thing...