Time of My Life..

Thanks to the most wonderful entertainer ever...KENNY CHESNEY!! My dad, sister and I went to the West Palm Beach concert last night and had the most amazing time. I have seen Kenny in concert the past 4 summers and seriously, every year he just steps it up and his shows get better and better. If you ever go to one of his concerts, its easy to see why he always wins entertainer of the year. He puts on one HECK of a show!!!
Before the show, we met up for dinner at Carrabba's and some great food. We then drove to the concert, took our seat and just hung out for a little bit. We hadn't seen our dad for 2 weeks (a LONG time for us!) because he has been traveling for work and playing in a few golf tournaments, so it was really nice to catch up for a bit. Miranda Lambert opened up for Kenny and she is one crazy girl...I think every song talks about her drinking and guns, lol. She was great fun though. Then, it was time for Kenny. I can never get enough of him. Seriously, the man basically goes on a 4-5 month tour each year, plus puts out a new cd practically each year and his success just continues to grow. His ability to remain successful is really true to how great he really is. I have been to a decent amount of concerts and nothing even compares to the show he puts on. How he has the energy to put on a 2 hour set with as much energy as he does is just unbelieveable. Anyway, after the AMAZING show, we drove home...and oh man, was it a longgg drive. ugh. We got home at 2:30 and for practically the whole day today I felt like a walking zombie. It was totally worth it though. :) Anyway, here are some pictures from last night....

6th Grade Changes Everything

Ever since my kids started school, I have always checked their homework when they completed it. I'm the mom who makes sure every problem is right, every writing assignment is neat and quite frankly, I am picky and have high standards for their work. However, this has quickly come to a halt as the second week of middle school rolls around. Sean started 6th grade this year and everyday when I check his homework, I just look at it and and tell him, "good job!" and close it up. Ya know why?? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's because I have NO idea how to do those crazy math problems anymore. Math was always my weakest and I'm sure at this point, Sean (who is a math whiz) knows what he is doing much better than I do at this point. It's quite embarrassing. Surprisingly, he hasn't said anything to me yet about not checking it like I used to, and quite frankly I'm a little too prideful to tell him I have no idea what his work is about. :)

On that note...he has called me from school and/or his friends cell phones 3 times this week. He is now telling me that he needs a phone. Coicidence? I think not.
I can officially say middle school changes everything..but it's so exciting none the less!

Blue Paisleys News!

I am so excited about one of the new vendors we are now carrying- Sugarpie Bebe!! If you go to www.bluepaisleys.com and search "sugarpiebebe" in the search box on the bottom. You will find some awesome diaper changing totes, adorable blankets, bibs and burp clothes in some fantastic prints!!

It really makes me want to have another baby, especially a girl, just so I can buy all these super cute baby "supplies"!!! Perfect and justifiable reason to reproduce if ya ask me! :) Also, be on the look out, we will be having quite a few more new products and companies in the very near future. SO exciting!

On that note (and I don't even know if any of you read this), I want to thank any and all of the customers who have been so wonderful and accepting of my crazy little idea of my Blue Paisleys store, that has turned into a wonderful reality! THANK YOU!!!

In other exciting news, Jonah finally referred to me as his "mama" today on numerous occassions! Yay!!

AMAZING Weekend

After much debate and a great deal of mind changing, we decided to head down to our condo on the beach. We decided it was the only weekend that we had very little to do and very little scheduled, especially as soccer season begins this coming week. When soccer season begins, life gets crazy to say the least. Anyway, we left Friday night for the beach and basically just hung out eating dinner, playing the wii and watching TV. The rest of the weekend we basically just swam in the pool, swam in the ocean, layed out, played in the sand, got lots of sun and then woke up and did it all over again. :) It was so fun, so relaxing and just a great vacation away from home. I loved sitting out on the lanai, listening to the waves and reading a good book. It was absolutely wonderful.

On Saturday late afternoon, I left my wonderful husband with all the kids while I went to a super fun card party. I love love love those!! I love scrapbooking and card making, but with 5 kids, never sit down enough and open my craft armoire to work, so having a scheduled day/time to go and do this is great! We also went to Chili's afterwards and a great time was had by all. :) I am so glad I got to go!! Thanks again Nichole for being the most wonderful host for this parties! :)

Anyway, it was a fun weekend. The kids all had sooo much fun and got plenty of sun. So far, I think, besides myself, everyone else is sunburn free though. Yay!
I can say the best part was the fact that we woke up Sunday morning knowing that although our "vacation" was ending later that day, we only had a 20 minute drive to get back home. :) As always, it's good to be home and once I get some pictures uploaded I will be sure to post them.

It's Been a LONG 11 Months...

BUT Jonah is FINALLY SLEEPING!!!! You read that right- Jonah- my little baby who decided it was best to be awake all the time for the first 11 months of his life FINALLY LOVES SLEEP. Praise GOD!!! I am not joking when I say that he would nap for maybe 30 minutes a day (broken up between 2-3 naps) and then maybe sleep 2-3 hours at a time during the night until just recently.

Now, Jonah sleeps ALL night, from 7 or 8 (depending on if he has 1 or 2 naps) until 7 or 8 the next morning. That is TWELVE hours...TWELVE WONDERFUL hours!!! He also naps 1 or 2 times a day, and each nap is now between 2-3 HOURS!!!! I can't even begin to tell you how exciting that is. He is so much happier, I am so much happier and our household is much more pleasent now. :)

To make things even better, I have basically always nursed Jonah to sleep (nap and bedtime). He now eats, and then I lay him in his crib AWAKE and he falls asleep on his own. I'm impressed. My little baby boy is ready to turn into a toddler and I am more than ready for him to start acting like one. :)


PS. Hurricane Fay was a doozie- thankfully. We lot a lot of wind and rain, but no damage. We just have a few big, skinny trees that fell down on our fence in the back. We also lost power sometime in the middle of the night. Thankfully, it came back on around 1pm though today. Back to school for the kids tomorrow! Woohoo!

Our First Day of School

Today began the 08-09 school year and everything went really well. I got Kevin up at 6:45, and drove him to school at 7:30. Then, came home, got everyone else ready and drove Kyla and Sean to school around 9:30. It was a big day for them because Sean was starting middle school and Kyla was officially moving to the "big" preschool.

Anyway, all 3 had great days. Kevin really seems to like and admire his teacher. He has the same 4th grade teacher Sean had, which is nice. Sean seems to really like all of his teachers, and I think he is excited to just be a middle-schooler in general. I still can't believe it. I'll never forget dropping him off for his first day of Kindergarden and just coming home and crying for like an hour straight. He just seemed too small to go to such a big place everyday, almost all day. Now, here he is, almost a teenager, yet still the sweetest, and most loving little boy! Today was nothing but pure excitement and happiness on my end for him. He's come such a long way and I knew he was so ready for this new change. Kyla was really, really excited and pretty giddy about going to school this morning. She just couldn't wait to get out the door. Her teachers were great, and she was so happy when I picked her up. She told me all about her fun day and just kept going on about how much she loved the "big school". Although it's still preschool, she has now moved over to the "big" building (in her 3 yr old program last room she was in a tiny classroom across from where she is now). Kyla even came home and "played school" with some imaginary friends afterwards. I was happy. :)
So, because of Hurricane Fay, today basically ended up being a great practice day because school is cancelled tomorrow. :) Kirt is off work tomrorow too, and right now it doesn't seem like the weather will be all too bad, so it may end up being a fun day. However, until the storm officially passes, and we're still enjoying the luxury of electricity, I won't hold my breath. :)

Kyla lost a TOOTH!

My almost 5 year old (where has the time gone...) lost her first tooth today!! It's actually quite sad to know her little baby teeth are starting to fall out. :( I was really worried at first because both of our boys didn't lose their teeth until they were 6. I remember losing mine at 5 years old. A little panicked, I called the dentist anyway. He said that her age is totally normal and that because she got her teeth in earlier (4.5 months) that she likely would lose them earlier as well. Anyway, I will be back with pictures from my toothless little girl tonight.

The Beach House

My aunt, uncle and cousins are in town and have been staying at our beach house this past week, so we went down today to pay them a visit. We LOVE going down there and always have such a great time. Unfortunately, because we are so close to it, we rarely actually *stay* there; instead, it's always us visiting the people who are staying. While we were there today though we decided to book a weekend for ourselves. :) I'm trying to convince my husband to allow me to have a friend's weekend down there as well sometime in the near future. :)
Anyway, it was so great to see my aunt and little cousins. My cousins are the same age as my kids, so they love it too. :) The weather wasn't the greatest today, but we all had fun anyway. My cousins are so sweet and so cute and I am so happy we got to spend some time with them this past week. Here are some pictures from our visit today:

My Walking and Climbing Boy!

I figured I should at least add a few pictures of my littlest man walking! There is nothing funnier than watching this little person figure out how to walk and take steps. It cracks me up!!
Here he is in all his glory!!

..and up he goes..




We have also discovered and mastered the art of climbing everything we are not supposed to at 10 months....




..and for comparisions sake, here is Carter at 11 months. :)

08/08/08

I took the kids to an indoor playground today, which they really enjoyed. It was a great way to get some energy out, while not destroying my house, and at the same time staying in the much needed air conditioning! Here are some pics from our trip today:







...and then tonight, Carter felt the need to dig through my purse and make himself all pretty. :)

These are a few of my favorite things...

in no particular order:

1. Cape Cod Chips. Thanks to the wonderful samples Costco gives out, I have now found my newest favorite snack food. They are sooo good and there is nothing better than a snack of salty chips mixed with some chocolate chip cookies! Love the salty sweet mix.



2. Summer. I LOVE the summer sun. I love going to the pool almost everyday and coming home to nap with the little boys afterwards.

3. My deck! Last year (May of 2007) when I was pregnant with Jonah, Kirt and I worked really hard for 2 days straight and built ourselves a nice, big (30x16) deck for our backyard. I absolutely LOVE that thing and am sooo happy we did it. I can let the kids out there to play for my own sanity and I also can lay out on it during the little boys nap. It's truly a great place for everyone. :)

4. Kenny Chesney concert!!! He is my favorite singer and I never get sick of listening to him. This will be my 4th year in a row seeing him and I am beyond excited because I have had nothing but the most amazing time every year I've gone. This year, I am going with my dad and sister at the end of this month. :)


5. School. Although I will miss summer greatly, I am excited for school to be starting in TEN days!! This is the first time in years that I myself will not be taking classes myself during the school year. I will miss my kids dearly as well as the simpleness of summer and the laziness involved, but will be happy to get back to a routine of some sort.

6. Birthdays. I love birthdays and am excited about Kirt, Kyla and Jonah's upcoming birthdays. However, I am still plan-less as to what I/we will do for them. :)

7. The Olympics!! I LOVE watching sports, really all sports (football, basketball, baseball, soccer...) so I am always so excited when the Olympics games begin. This year, as most, I am excited to see gymnastics, swimming and soccer most. I'm sure I'll be glued to the TV quite a bit the next two weeks!

8. My cookie dough scoop. I love to bake. LOVE LOVE LOVE it! It may seem rediculous but I finally found a cookie dough scooper that I love. It gives me the most perfect round shaped cookies. Unfortunately, I am probably the most unhealthy eater out there...

The Vacation Pics!

Here are some of the pictures from our wonderful vacation. To see more, check out my facebook!

Kyla and her Bike

This picture is actually from back in March, when Kyla learned to ride her bike. We were so so proud of her and so excited, especially because we're quite the "outdoor" family. We LOVE going on bikerides as a family, and it was getting a little rediculous to have 3 kids on the back of my bike (one in a seat and then two kids in the pull behind trailer). We finally decided to teach her how to do it and she basically did it instantly! However, the next day some crazy fear was instilled in her and she NEVER wanted to ride a bike again- unless I put her training wheels back on (which I would not do).
Fast forward to last night (more than 4 months later..) I told her she couldn't turn five without knowing how to ride her bike. Instant motivation. She went right out, hopped on and rode all over the neighborhood, and even to my dad's house (he's around the corner, less than a half mile away). Better yet, this morning she asked if we could go out and ride today. :)

Back to reality...

Well, were back from our wonderful vacation and back to our world of reality (which is actually a good thing!). I LOVE going away, but I always LOVE coming home just as much. There is no place like home. Truly.
Anyway, we had so much fun, made so many memories and got to spend some much needed time with family. Everything went so great. The kids saw a few movies while we were there, I did some shopping, spent a lot of time on the Mississippi, visited the Lego Discovery Center in Chicago (all the kids LOVE lego's) and did a lot of eating. :) I'll post some pictures in a later post..there are a lot of them!